


Heavy Hearts

by Kattwyllie



Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Angst, Explicit Language, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Kidnapping, Mild Smut, Physical Abuse, Sexual Assault
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:53:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 23,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26000695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kattwyllie/pseuds/Kattwyllie
Summary: Casey & Y/N are hopelessly in love, they met during their first year at Harvard, both coming from esteemed, privileged families, Casey's in NYC, Y/N's in DC. When summer break before their final year rolls around, Y/N has to head back to DC for family stuff while Casey heads to the Hamptons with her family. Things hit the fan in DC, angst ensues, will Casey & YN manage to make it through or with Y/N's family manage to come between them.
Relationships: Casey Novak/Reader
Kudos: 6





	1. 1

You laughed gently against your girlfriend’s neck, nipping it slightly as you curled against her, appreciating her joke. You were both wrapped up in your dorm bed, your room mate gone off to fuck who knows what at some frat party. Casey smiled against the top of your head, giving it a small kiss, moving her lips down to yours. You took full advantage, moving against her lips with passion, tongue starting to slip into her mouth, pulling her body against yours, humming in satisfaction. You felt her begin to pull away, her eyes focussed behind you,

“Babe it’s back on…” A nod gestured to the TV, you groaned slightly, rolling around in her arms to turn your attention to the movie you’d been watching, a wave of satisfaction overcoming you as you felt Casey bury herself into you neck, softly kissing it before returning her attention to the tv.

You and Casey had met each other during your first year at Harvard, you’d been assigned to work on a couple of projects together and there was no denying your chemistry. Weeks of joking around between you, trying to figure out exactly where the other stood on the sexuality spectrum until you invited her for a night out, specifically a night out to a gay bar. Casey had enthusiastically agreed, a mere three shots of tequila was all it took for her to pull you into her arms, your lips finally capturing hers, moving against her with ease, small moans escaping your lips. 

You’d spent the night buried in each other’s bodies, giggling softly, nipping against each others skin, lips finding corners of each other you’d never imagined discovering. When the night started to slip away, you headed back to your empty dorm room, taking the time to truly appreciate each other, breathy moans and whimpers echoing against the walls. That night solidified your relationship, there was no way either of you were seeing anyone else, you fell hard and fast, and neither of you had a problem with that. Two years later and you were both one year away from graduating with the ever so prestigious law degree, and plans to move out to New York together.

You hummed out in satisfaction as the the movie slowed to a stop on the tv while you rolled to face your girlfriend. Your lips hit hers, moving against her, a sense of love coursing through the two of you. You pulled away lightly, stroking her face gently, 

“I wish you didn’t have to go to D.C. this summer…” Casey murmured against your skin,

“I do too.” You muttered against her arm, kissing her hand gently, 

“My parents were looking forward to spending time in the Hamptons with you.” She kissed your head gently as you chuckled against her arm, 

“Why is your family so much cooler than mine?”

“It might have something to do with your Dad being a Republican senator…” You rolled your eyes,

“Ugh, don’t remind me…”

Your family, the Vanderbilt’s, were a prestigious and well respected family up down in D.C. You were lucky to have the privileged upbringing that you did, and you were grateful for it, private schools, a trust fund if you ever needed to fall back onto it, and a straight head on your shoulders. You had found that as you advanced through life, you varied from the beliefs and way of life that your parents had expected from you (obviously being gay wasn’t high on their agenda for their only daughter, at least they didn’t shun you when you came out. You were however, barred from ever bringing a girlfriend to public events). 

Then came Brock Lexington, the son of your father’s best friend, your parents were very insistent on him chaperoning you at events, parties and the like, very hopeful that this would help “change your mind”. He was your usual socialite, good looking, charming, constantly surrounded by girls throwing themselves at him. He was also a complete douche bag who didn’t take no for an answer, and had raped a girl at a high school party. The poor girl was a friend of a friend from a public school who’s mother worked too many hours trying to make ends meet so when the truth came out, the Lexington’s simply paid her off to keep her quiet.

When you’d moved off to Harvard your parents were supportive, ecstatic that you were pursuing a career in the law field, they obviously expected you to be a shark of a defence attorney. Your mother nearly choked on her Thanksgiving turkey when you casually stated that your plan was to work for the district attorney’s office instead. You wanted to help the victims, stand up for those who had been wronged and help them through their struggles while making the world a safer place. They were disappointed when you mentioned you were dating a girl, but at the very least they were satisfied that it was someone who was attending Harvard Law and that the Novak’s were a well known and esteemed family out in New York. 

The Novak’s on the other hand were more than supportive of you and Casey’s relationship and sexualities, hell they’d even attended a number of pride events with the two of you over the years. They’d taken a strong liking to you, and were happy that you loved their daughter and made her happy, her mom was quick to make marriage quips at the two of you during dinners. You’d managed to avoid having to go home to your family on school breaks by spending the holidays with Casey and her family, spending summers at their Hampton house had become tradition. 

Unfortunately your older brother had just announced his engagement, so you were required home, a summer full of garden parties, country clubs, cocktail events all in honour of Ethan & the future Mrs Vanderbilt awaited you. 

Casey spent every spare moment that spring with you, which wasn’t too hard considering you had the same schedule. You sprawled out in each others arms as you studied and prepped each other for exams, working on papers in the library together and using your free time to at least attempt a coffee date once in a while. In the two years that you’d been together, you’d fallen more in love every single day. You talked about your future often, alluding to marriage, a beautiful brownstone on the Upper West side of New York City with a gorgeous dog or two to keep you company while the other was busy working. You’d spent a night after a few glasses of rose scrolling through Pinterest creating your ideal wedding board, filling it with both of your favourite things. Casey practically dragged you into a Tiffany’s store one day while on your way to brunch, keeping a watching eye on you as you fawned over the stunning array of rings in front of you.

The day eventually came that you’d both packed up your dorms, exams were finished, and it was time for you to deal with distance for the next few months. Not only would your parents murder you if you brought Casey along to a very publicized summer of events, but she had a few summer courses she was taking online that would help with her career. She’d spent the night in your dorm, holding you tighter than normal, taking the extra time to really express to you just how much she loved you in ways words couldn’t even hold up. She walked you out to the car your parents had sent for you (they had the accurate worry that you wouldn’t show up otherwise), helping you with luggage. As the driver shut the trunk, you turned back to her, tears brimming in your eyes, you knew it was only for a few months but you’d barely been apart for the past two years. Casey pulled you into her, kissing you gently, lips feeling like heaven against yours. You stayed in a close embrace, her hand stroking down your cheek,

“I love you so fucking much.” You murmured, she kissed you softly again, 

“I love you more.” You smiled at that, 

“Case, I’m really gonna miss you…”

“I know.” She rubbed your cheek lightly, “I’m gonna miss you too…”

“If we’re lucky, I can escape by August, make up some crazy excuse, meet you in the Hamptons.” She huffed out a laugh, a smile on her face,

“I’d really like that..” You leaned up, kissing her again, then pulling her into a tight hug, simply savouring each other’s embrace for as long as you could. The driver’s voice broke your fantasy,

“Miss Vanderbilt?” You very reluctantly pulled away, leaving your hand linked in Casey’s, “We need to get going or you’ll miss your flight.” You sighed out a breath of sombreness, squeezing Casey’s hand as she pulled you into one last kiss, tears blurring her eyes.

“I love you. Call me when you land.” You nodded, 

“I love you too. I’ll see you soon baby.” Casey stayed to watch the car drive off, feeling slightly silly and like she was 16 again crying over someone simply going home for the summer. She huffed out a sigh, wiping at her eyes as she made her way back inside, ready to make her way back to NYC, at least she had her parents to rely on over the next few months.


	2. Chapter 2

You’d arrived in D.C. without a hitch, promptly calling Casey once you’d landed, your conversation lasting the entire ride from the airport to your parents house. Your mother welcomed you into the house with open arms, pulling you into a tight hug, commented on your slightly disheveled appearance, ushering you upstairs to freshen up before dinner.

Your family was quick to ignore the parts of your life that they disapproved of, not once asking or mentioning Casey during dinner. Your brother was at least nice enough to ask how Harvard was going, you’d always gotten along with him the best, but he still sided with your parents on most of your “issues”. 

The conversation flowed easily enough at dinner, your Mother bringing up the engagement garden party that they were hosting for Ethan and Sarah that weekend that you all obviously had to be in attendance of. You assured her that you would, in fact, be awake, presentable and respectfully behaved before you retreated up to your room, rolling your eyes as you noticed she had pulled a dress out of your closet that she deemed acceptable. You spent a bit of time texting with Casey before soaking in the shower and curling up in bed, noticing how it felt colder than normal, empty with the lack of your girlfriend.

**

That Friday you traipsed downstairs still in your pyjama shorts and tee, hair loose around your shoulders. Thankfully the house was quiet, your brother of course, lived with his fiancee, your Dad was supposedly at work and your Mom must have already been at the Country Club stressing over the perfection of the engagement party. You softly laughed to yourself, imagining the vast differences in treatment if Casey was to ever become your fiancee. Then again, the Novak’s would probably be just as ecstatic, and you’d never have to deal with your family again. 

You spent breakfast, lunch, and half of the afternoon practically alone in the giant house, though you pleasantly surprised Larissa, the housekeeper when she came through. She was quick to hug you, asking about Harvard, and more importantly about Casey. The two of you spent some time chatting before your phone pinged, a message from your Mother reminding you to be ready by 4:30 for the car that was picking you up.

The dress your Mom had left out for you was at least one you liked, a pale blue sundress with cap sleeves, a hint of a v neck, it flowed down to around your knees. You paired it with light make up, leaving your hair loose and lightly curled, tossing on a necklace your parents had given you for your 16th birthday before adding a pair of white heels, making it down to the entrance way in the nick of time to meet the car.

You entered the country club, making your way out back to find the event starting to fully bustle with people. Giving your parents the required kiss on the cheek, your Father commented on your look before you escaped to the bar. The one good thing about these events were the open bar, you always felt better with a glass of champagne in your hand. You managed to get in a “congratulations” to your Ethan & Sarah before they were swept away by all the other guests. A few other relatives and old friends made you suffer through the pleasantries of small talk, you made comments on school, how happy you were for your brother, but bit your tongue when it came to anything involving your personal life. 

Dinner progressed with no hitches, both your parents and Sarah’s parents made speeches that you had to contain your eye rolls at. At least the food was high quality and you knew you’d be able to escape fairly quickly as the party moved its way inside one of the many lounges.

You thanked the bartender as they passed you your third glass of champagne (you were the farthest thing from a lightweight, it was regular for Casey and you to split a bottle of scotch, plus you’d eaten your weight at dinner), your plan to duck out as soon as you were finished this one was still intact. Your parents were so enthralled with the engaged couple that you doubted they would notice. You were about to move away from the bar when the moment you were dreading happened, a body caged you against the bar, kissing your cheek, lingering a little too long for comfort.

“If it isn’t Y/N Vanderbilt…” Brock’s smug attitude oozed throughout the room, “Didn’t expect to see you today, thought you’d escaped off to law school.” You laughed darkly, 

“You know my Father would’ve killed me if I hadn’t made an appearance this summer.” You took a sip of champagne, avoiding Brock’s eyes before placing the glass down on the bar between the two of you

“You’re here for the summer?” His brow raised, a smirk evident on his face, “Looks like we have time to have some fun.”

“Oh please…” You outwardly rolled your eyes, “You know you’re not my type…” Brock chuckled darkly at your response,

“Aww, sweetheart, that doesn’t matter, believe me, I’ll be your type when we’re through.” His hand trailed down your side before you swatted it away, 

“I’m seeing someone.”

“Sure you are. What’s his name?” You glared up at him, 

“ _Her_ name is Casey…believe me…you’re not my type.” You gritted your teeth at the last part, Brock started to open his mouth to reply when one of your Aunt’s furiously approached you, pulling you into her arms and your attention completely away from him. She spent more than a few minutes gaining your attention, rambling on about one thing or the next. You accepted the excuse to not have to deal with Brock, feeling a sense of annoyance when she said she was making her goodbye rounds, meaning you had to turn back to the man behind you. 

“Where were we?” He handed your glass of champagne back to you, a smarmy grin plastered on his face. You rolled your eyes, grabbing the glass from him,

“I was about to finish this drink and bail on this lame party…alone…” You enunciated the last part clearly, taking a large swig of your drink, “Which is exactly what you’re going to leave me…alone.” You swore you saw a glint of glee in Brock’s eyes as you practically chugged back the rest of your champagne. He was being weirder than normal, your brows furrowed, glaring up at him.

“What?” He let out that slimy grin again,

“I ever tell you how much of a creep you are?” He laughed at that, reaching out to your body again, pulling you against him, 

“Sweetheart, you and I both know that’s not how you feel about me.” You tried to shove him away, your strength somehow not in your body, you managed to push out of his arms, finishing the rest of your drink.

“I’m leaving. Good night.” You forcefully spoke, pushing your body from the bar, attempting to make your way out of the country club on surprisingly shaky feet.


	3. Chapter 3

You awoke the next morning face down on your bed, you groaned heavily as you pushed yourself up slowly on your bed, head spinning, still dressed in yesterdays clothes. Your body was tense, you were sore in places you’d never been sore before, what looked like forming bruises littered your inner thighs, the slip in your dress ripped nearly up to your hip. You went to check your phone, finding it dead, _‘what the fuck’_ you thought to yourself…you’d only had three drinks, and you weren’t exactly a lightweight. You ran a hand over your face, through your hair as you tried to recall the events of the night before, the last thing you remembered was trying to evade Brock at the bar. He must’ve coerced you into doing shots you thought, shaking as you made your way to the shower. You’d been way too drunk before, sure, you’d made bad decisions, but your brain had always been fuzzy, spotty, never completely blank, you guessed you hadn’t eaten as much as you’d thought as you moved into the shower. You’d barely moved under the stream of water when you realized you needed to sit down, whatever was in your system was not okay with being awake yet.

You needed water like no tomorrow, more like, 12 Gatorades, but either meant making your way downstairs, you shielded your eyes from the bright windows as you came into the kitchen. Filling up a glass with water you chugged it back, you found Gravol in one of the kitchen cupboards before settling down at the island. The nausea in your stomach came back to you after the water, chugging was certainly a mistake. You barely made it to the hallway bathroom before expelling what was simply stomach acid and water into the toilet, leaving you shaking and dry heaving collapsed on the bathroom floor. Your eyes watered as you moved back into the kitchen, popping another ginger chewable gravol as you searched for any kind of carb. A loaf of French bread caught your attention, you shakily cut off a large chunk, pulling piece by piece into your mouth, chewing slowly, making sure to lubricate your mouth with smaller sips of gatorade between bites. 

Much to your dismay, your Mother made her way into the kitchen at this point, you kept your head in your hands, slouched against the kitchen island, wobbly on the stool.

“You drink too much last night darling?” She threw your way, pulling the fridge open for a new bottle of Perrier, 

“I had three glasses….I doubt thats too much.” You shot back, your body attempting to hold back another round of shakes. She smiled at your brightly, 

“Well, Brock said he had a lovely time on your date last night, he’s coming for dinner tonight!” You furrowed your brows at that, your heart clenching in your chest, the last thing you remembered was Brock, you knew his history, did he have something to do with this?!

“What?” Your voice was quiet, broken, 

“Honestly, I’m just glad you’re done with your whole ‘ _phase’_ with that Novak girl….you and Brock were always meant to be! I’m glad he finally convinced you on a date honey.” Your heart clenched again at that, a feeling of nausea spilling through your body for a completely different reason.

“Mom…seriously…”

“Seriously what? Everyone saw you leave with Brock last night, you know how the community talks! Darling we’re all happy for you.” Your gut was full of butterflies, your hand paused in moving the bread to your mouth.

“There is _nothing_ going on with Brock and I!” You practically stormed out of the kitchen, taking the bread and gatorade with you, feeling like a teenager as you slammed your bedroom door. Tears burned in your eyes, you tossed the items in your hands to your bedside table, reaching for your phone, finally charged enough to turn on.

**  
Casey groaned in her sleep, realizing her phone was going off multiple times but not wanting to deal with it quite yet. It was still dark in her room, and summer break so she let it go unanswered, curling tighter against her blankets. She missed having you buried against her, tracing her body with your hands, her bed felt empty without you. It may have only been just over a week but anytime away from you felt like forever. Eventually she woke, groggily, rubbing her eyes as she moved to grab her phone, pulling it towards her, falling against the pillows. She noticed she had a series of text messages from you, she rubbed her face, bringing her hand to her eyes, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She was more than shocked when she slid the screen open to what your messages had to say,

_10:18 pm: ‘Case, I know how you feel about me, but I need to tell you, I don’t love you anymore. I was working through a phase at Harvard, I never really liked that kind of thing, This whole experience in D.C. has made me realize that. You were a great stand in as I experimented but I was wrong to think that I could spend my life with a woman. I’m sorry but you were nothing but a blip on my radar.’_

Casey felt her breath hitch in her throat, there was no way this could be possible, but there was some hint of insecurity that made her believe you, it came from your number after all and it was worded exactly as if you’d written it. She nearly burst into tears as she read through the next round of messages.

_‘My parents aren’t okay with us, and I need them to be supportive. Despite our differences I love my family. I need someone who the Republican party agrees with, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier, I didn’t have the courage to do it in person before I left, but it’s over baby. I can’t be with you anymore, ever. Goodbye.’_

Casey convulsed into a series of sobs, you were the love of her life, she’d picked out engagement rings for you, she knew you were the only woman she wanted to be her wife, and there you were, shattering her heart that had once been full of nothing but love into a million little jagged pieces. The sobs wretched through her, her body convulsing against itself, unable to even process what was happening. She felt a swirling pit in her gut, bile building up in her throat as she raced into the bathroom, heaving up last nights dinner until there was nothing left in her stomach to give. The cool tile of the bathroom floor was the only thing grounding her to reality, her tears continually streaming down her face. Had the last two years really meant nothing to you? All those nights cuddled up in your dorm, the way she’d catch you staring at her when you were supposed to be studying, hours spent on Pinterest looking up wedding ideas?! All for nothing? Was that really the reason you went home this summer, so you’d be able to have a clean break?! Casey felt another wave of nausea coming despite having nothing left in her to give, the dry heaving hurting her throat even more than the sobbing, bringing burning tears into her eyes. She wiped her eyes, rinsing out her mouth as she sat back against the bathroom wall, her sobs silencing slightly.

A text message? Seriously? You’d mentioned not having the courage to do it before you’d left, but a _fucking text message?!_ After two years? Casey pushed herself up onto her feet, the burning in her veins turning to anger as she reached for her phone. Whether you answered or not, if you were going to dump her out of nowhere, she was going to give you a piece of her mind.

**

You opened your phone with the intention of texting Casey, brows furrowing as you she wasn’t your most recent contact. You scrolled through your messages inbox, her name was nowhere to be found, what the fuck? In your drunken haze you must have accidentally deleted them. You sighed, closing the app realizing the amount of notifications you had, most importantly a missed call and a voicemail from Casey. You smiled softly, at least there was something positive in the heat of whatever this giant mess was that you had yet to figure out. Clicking play you were happy you’d be able to hear your girlfriend’s voice today.

“Y/N, I can’t fucking believe you. You’ve barely been gone a few days and you pull something like this shit?” You could hear her voice shudder against the receiver, “I loved you…I loved you more than you could imagine and you leave me out of the blue?!” Her voice shook the same amount that your hand did, “You know, I really thought we’d end up married…” A huff of breath, “Go screw yourself, I hope I never see you again…I deserve better than this…and I thought you’d do better than this. You’re a fucking coward.” 

A sharp click and the line went dead.

You were frozen, your blood ran cold and you felt another wave of nausea pooling in your stomach as tears brimmed your eyes. 

‘Loved’ Casey had said… _past tense_ …she never wanted to see you again? Did she really mean that? Your brain scrambled as you squeezed your eyes shut, trying to will yourself to remember something, ANYTHING, from the previous night. Tears started rolling down your face as it was still all completely black. You quickly re-opened your phone, hitting Casey’s contact to try and make any sense of what was going on, try to explain yourself. Your heart clenched when the line simply went dead, had she blocked your number?! You tried a text and got the same outcome. Your breathing quickened as anxiety raced through your body, your vision blurry with tears as you swiped through various social media apps, not able to find her contact on any of them. 

When she said she never wanted to see you again, she really had meant it… 

You felt your chest tighten, collapsing against yourself in uncontrollable sobs, shaking your body as your phone fell off your lap to the floor. Casey was the love of your life, you were never happier than when you with her, the warmth of being in her arms was the safest you’d ever felt in your entire life. You’d meant it when you said you’d wanted to spend the rest of your life with her, all those hours talking about your dream wedding, they all ended with her being the one you were saying your vows with. The way she’d smirk when she caught you staring at her, the glint in her eye making you blush despite having been together for so long already. The way she’d simply be able to sense things about you, even when you weren’t physically in the same place and she’d show up, wrapping you up in her arms, telling her how much she loved you. You’d opened up to her, bore your soul to her, she knew more about you than anyone else on the planet. You’d been gone for a week and your heart ached every day thinking of her, missing being able to wake up next to her beautiful face, peppering it with kisses, giggles breaking out between you as you woke up.

Now she wanted absolutely nothing to do with you? She’d been so fast to block you on everything, completely cutting you out of her life, whatever had happened last night involved you breaking her heart, in turn entirely breaking your own.


	4. Chapter 4

After receiving Casey’s voicemail you sobbed yourself back in to a comatose sleep, your pillow stained with the tears of your shattering heart. After you’d finally managed to completely dehydrate yourself you curled up in your bed, arms wrapping around an old stuffed animal, simply staring towards the window, not really noticing the birds or tree branches swaying in the warm breeze. Every so often your hand would flail out for your phone, swearing that you’d heard it vibrate, hoping that it was Casey and all of this was some kind of bad dream. Each time you were met with a blank screen, and a clenching in your empty chest.

Eventually your Mother practically barged into your room, demanding that you clean yourself up for dinner with Brock and his parents at the club, not even noticing that anything was wrong. You managed to pull yourself out of bed and back into the shower, actually managing to finish it this time, you were still a little shaky on your feet though. 30 minutes later you were dressed in a cocktail dress, hair pinned back entering the dining room, dragging a little bit behind your parents as they greeted the Lexington’s. Mrs Lexington mentioned that Brock was over in the lounge if you wanted to say a ‘special hello’ to him, you practically puked in your mouth at the comment.

Throughout the day you’d hoped some foggy memories would come back, but there was still nothing, you knew that everything that happened in the last 24 hours could be pinned to one person, and that one person was the one you were approaching in the lounge.

Brock’s usual smarmy grin was plastered on his face as he eye fucked you as you walked up to him,

“Hey sweetheart…”He drawled, leaning down to pull you into a kiss. You angrily shoved against his chest, backing away, he grimaced at that. Pulling on his elbow you dragged him into a corner, not really caring about keeping up appearances anymore.

“What the _fuck_ happened last night?” Your voice was low, but seething with rage. He darkly chuckled, raising his drink to his lips before he answered.

“We had one hell of a good time baby,” You cringed at the use of the pet name Casey usually used, “You keep insisting that your gay, but there’s no way you’d take my cock that good if you are.” He settled his words with a wink, you felt your heart leap into your throat, not wanting to believe what he was saying.

“Excuse me?!?”

“We had sex darlin’.”

“That’s not sex, that’s fucking _rape_ Brock!” You had tears burning in your eyes, rage towards the piece of shit human in front of you, feeling completely exploited and exposed. “Punishable by two years! You can’t fucking buy me off like that girl back in high school!” He huffed a laugh at that, taking another swig of whisky.

“Put your lawyer panties away, its a he said, she said.” His eyes darkened as he leered down at you, “You can’t prove anything, the GHB’s all out of your system by now…” You felt a punch to your gut at that. He was right…everyone at the party witnessed you drinking together, leaving together, it was a _very_ weak case at best. GHB…it was no fucking wonder why everything was completely black and you felt like absolute garbage. While your brain was busy trying to process all of this, Brock wrapped a tightly controlling arm around your shoulders, “C’mon sweetheart, we can’t hold up dinner.”

The meal went about the best that it could be considering the circumstances. Your parents obviously had you seated next to Brock, who’s hand would continually find its way onto your thigh, gripping a little too tightly. You would continually keep moving it off, which would cause him to attempt to drag your hand over to his crotch. He was lucky you were still so in shock you didn’t just punch him in the dick and storm out of there. 

Mrs. Lexington commented that you seemed quieter than usual and your Mother countered that you’d had a little too much to drink at the engagement party. _‘Yeah,_ ’ you thought, _‘A little bit too much date rape drug…’_ You picked at your food, barely touched your wine and vehemently denied it when Brock offered to get you a different drink from the lounge. You noticed him sucking up to your Father, making a point to laugh at his jokes, clinging onto every story he told. When the conversation turned to politics you had to hold back the eye roll that was dying to break free, and basically zoned out, picking at the tablecloth as you waited for the evening to be over. 

You faintly heard Brock talking about his aspirations to follow in your Father’s footsteps, your Father saying something about backing Brock’s career when it clicked. This wasn’t about sex, this wasn’t even about an actual relationship with you, hell it had nothing to do with you, but everything to do with your family’s name and political status. Brock didn’t give a flying fuck about you, but if he had a head Republican senator’s daughter on his arm, things looked real good on paper. You vowed you’d make a stop to this before it got any worse, there was no way you were going to be anyone’s arm candy, especially someone as vile as Brock Lexington!

***

You had at least managed to make it all the way home before the argument with your parents began, you’d started with the easy news, the fact that Brock clearly only wanted the endorsement of your Father, and to have a Vanderbilt on his arm to make things look even better.

“Don’t be silly Y/N.” Your mother scoffed, “Brock’s a wonderful man from a very well liked family, you should be so lucky to end up with him.”

“He’s not a wonderful man Mom!” You were yelling now, ready to _burst_ “There was no date last night, he drugged me and fucking RAPED ME!” You felt another set tears starting to trail their way down your face.

“Oh now that is _simply_ ridiculous!” Your Father shot back, “And watch your language young lady!” you felt a shot to your chest, your Mother had a look of distaste on her face and you couldn’t believe it. How the fuck could your own blood not believe you?!

“You can’t go around accusing people like that Y/N, it looks bad for your reputation.” Mom’s turn again, battling against you, “You had a little too much to drink and just feel bad because you _think_ you’re still in love with that Novak girl.” A literal punch to the gut with that one.

“When are you just going to accept that I’m GAY! I do love Casey, and I would NEVER have consented to having sex with any man, _especially_ Brock!” Your body shook, too full of emotion to be able to control anymore.

“From what we’ve heard you broke up with her a few days after you got here, so what’s the harm in trying to make things work with Brock?” How on earth would your parents have known that? 

You froze, brain putting together the puzzle pieces….the deleted text messages, the completely unprompted voicemail from Casey, you’d been completely incoherent with Brock, had he set all of this up?! He must’ve used your phone to send something to Casey, you remembered something in the voicemail about you leaving her. Why the fuck was he so hell bent on destroying your life. 

This couldn’t possibly get any worse. 

**  
Back up in the Hamptons things were at least going somewhat less dramatic for Casey. Her mom noticed her red eyes when she came down for lunch, gently asking what was wrong. Both her parents were absolutely flabbergasted that you’d ended the relationship, especially through such an informal way.

Casey didn’t bother bringing up the fact that she’d already been ring shopping, hoping you’d make good on your promise to return early from D.C. and she could ask you to be her wife while you were buried in her arms on the beach underneath the stars. She wondered what she’d end up doing with the ring, she couldn’t even bare to think about it right now. Casey spent a week wallowing in self pity, throwing back too much wine while she thought her parents weren’t paying attention and then threw herself into her online course work, trying to get your face out of her head. 

She couldn’t possibly be any more heartbroken.


	5. Chapter 5

A few weeks had passed since the blowout with your parents, you thought things would start to clear up, that you could avoid Brock at all costs and return to Harvard early when you came down with a fucking flu, in the middle of summer too. It was after the second day of puking up your breakfast, feeling simply exhausted and lightheaded that your phone pinged. Every single time your heart jumped in your chest, praying that it was Casey (it never was) you rolled your eyes realizing it was an app notification, then your hand stilled, noticing it was your period tracker…alerting you that you were 2 weeks late…

You weren’t on birth control, I mean, why bother pumping extra hormones into your body when you only had sex with other girls who couldn’t knock you up. The thought of Plan B after the rape hadn’t even crossed your mind for the same reason, you started to panic. Your time in D.C. had been so stressful it must have affected your cycle, right? Shakily, you got up, making an excuse that you needed more medicine to your Mom before racing to the pharmacy.

**

Two little pink lines stared back at you, well, actually, six little pink lines stared back at you from the three sticks you’d peed on. You were in a complete sense of shock, how could this be happening? How could things KEEP getting worse? Your brain scrambled trying to think of some other excuse as to why the first test was positive, false positives happened all the time, right? But 3 false positives, a missed period and the symptoms you thought were the flu, there was practically no doubt. You collapsed against the bathroom wall, sobs encasing you, burying your face in your folded arms as you let the cries take over. You may have varied from a lot of your families beliefs as you grew up, and you were completely okay with women having the right to choose what to do with their own bodies, but for you personally, you knew you would never live with yourself if you got rid of it. 

Things really did have the audacity to get worse…

There was a gentle knock at your bathroom door, your Mom entering before you had a chance to answer, simply lifting your head. 

“Sweetheart, what’s wrong?” She actually looked concerned for once, her brows furrowed. You let out a shaky breath, simply gesturing towards the tests on the basin. She moved into the room, picking one up, a frown on her face as she realized what was going on.

“I’m pregnant…” You murmured out, hanging your head. You may be a fully grown 24 year old woman, but in that moment, you felt like you were 16 and caught sneaking back in the house past curfew.

“Well…” She let out a huff, “I’ll have to call the Lexington’s. We can’t have a single Vanderbilt mother running around out there.” You looked up in absolute _horror_ at her, realizing what she was alluding to.

“Mom…NO!” You choked back another cry, she simply tsk’d at you, turning to leave the room. Your parents were always hounding about how you couldn’t properly carry on the Vanderbilt name having ‘artificial’ or adopted children with another woman, this way, you could.

You weren’t surprised when the Lexington’s were absolutely _thrilled_ to hear the news (despite the unconventional way it came to be) like your family, they were all about making a name for their family, and having a way for it to live on was practically the only priority. The smug grin on Brock’s face almost brought on another wave of sickness in you, he truly had you trapped now, turned out it was a hell of a lot easier than he thought it was going to be. He stroked your cheek, grabbing your chin a little too tight for comfort as he directed your eyes to him, kneeling in front of you, kissing your hand, much to your disgust.

“Oh sweetheart…what a lovely little blessing this is. My family will do absolutely everything to help you through this, nothing but the best for my baby. Guess that means you get the lucky honour of being my wife.” He smirked, sliding a (obnoxiously large) ring onto your finger before you even had the chance to protest, you were completely numb, barely aware of what was going on around you anymore. Both sets of parents simply beamed down at the two of you, Mrs Lexington cut in first, 

“You two can move into the guest house on our estate! We just had it remodelled last summer, you’ll be nice and close so we’ll always be there to help while Brock’s working.” You shook out of your trance at that, brows furrowing.

“What? No! What…what about Harvard!?”

“Honey you can’t be serious!” Your Mother was having none of that, “You can’t finish a degree pregnant, you think you can raise a baby all by yourself out in Cambridge? Only the best for my daughter, you’re moving home.” She wasn’t wavering on her decision.

“What about my degree? About my career?” Brock chuckled, 

“No wife of mine will ever have to lift a finger, don’t worry about your career.” He leaned over you, kissing your cheek, “You’ll be a Lexington now sweetheart, now why don’t you pack your bags tonight, we’ll move you into the guest house tomorrow.” 

After the Lexington’s left for the evening, you turned back to your parents, completely outraged that they were not only okay with this but enforcing it. You were a grown woman, you could make your own choices! Sure it would be insane to try to finish your last year while pregnant, (God, what would Casey think?!) But you knew you could manage, tears breaking your eyes you turned to your parents.

“Mom…Dad…please don’t make me do this! I don’t want anything to do with Brock, I…I can’t….” Emotions toiling over for the millionth time since you’d gotten off the plane a month ago.

“Young lady, listen to me right now…you even so much as THINK of getting on a plane back to Massachusetts and you’re cut off from this family for good. No help, no communication, and you can say good bye to your trust fund. It’s a damn good thing you already broke up with the Novak girl because if you even try contacting her, the same rules apply. We can’t have the Novak family thinking ill of us for you rushing into an engagement because you got yourself knocked up.” Your Father was adamant, he knew that this was a good _arrangement,_ (for everybody but you) but fuck, what was this, the 1800’s!? 

You stared at him in disbelief, the trust fund was your only go to right now…you’d blown the small savings you’d built up while you worked in college pre-Harvard on an engagement ring for Casey a few months ago. You hadn’t been joking when you said you were planning to escape D.C. to meet her in the Hamptons, the Novak’s always hosted an end of summer beach party going until all hours of the night. They set off numerous displays of fireworks and watching Casey lose herself in that moment was one of your favourite views, the sparkle reflected in her eyes, you’d planned on asking her during those moments of utter awe, peace and love.

But instead…you were here….less than a month into your unwanted time in D.C. and Brock Lexington had successfully ruined your life, tearing absolutely everything you loved away from you. He took advantage of you, took your innocence, your dignity and safety when he raped you, he broke up the most important relationship in your life to no repair, and now he’d trapped you with a baby, a ring even. He’d ripped your hopes and dreams of becoming a lawyer away from you, dismantling what you were sure of being a very successful and rewarding career. There would be no Brownstone on the Upper West Side full of dogs and a loving wife anymore.

You were broken…completely torn apart….completely numb, how on earth had whatever upper being let this happen to you? Everything had been so wonderful, and now you were simply shattered into so many pieces you could barely fight back anymore.

***

It was a week later, Casey returned from an early morning run to find her parents finishing up coffee and breakfast in the dining room. She poured herself a large cup of water as she moved to join them, picking a pastry off the plate in the centre of the table. The newspaper was spread out on the table, she’d been keeping up with the politics section to help with one of the courses she was working on so she reached for it.

“Oh sweetheart, don’t…” Her Mom was quick to try and stop her, Casey only had time to quirk a brow in response before she glanced down and her heart dropped into her stomach. There was a photo of Ethan & Sarah, a man she recognized as Brock Lexington, but most importantly you. Upon further inspection, it was an ‘double engagement announcement’ the Vanderbilt’s were _‘elated and ecstatic to announce that both of their children were engaged to be married at the same time, that the bringing together of these families was a powerful move, that the love flowed so freely and they couldn’t wait for the three families to merge.’_

“What the fuck…”She whispered, more to herself, nearly forgetting her parents were sitting across the table from her.

“Baby I’m sorry…” Mrs Novak spoke softly, “I know you thought things were going to end so very differently than this. I told your father we should’v recycled the paper before you got back.” Casey flashed a tight lipped, horribly fake smile, 

“Don’t worry about it…” Her eyes finished reading the article, tracing back up to the photo, studying you. Her brows furrowed as she took you in, you’d worn that dress a week before you left, and as she remembered, your chest definitely didn’t spill out of it that much, nor was it that tight around your hips…God…were you pregnant?! Already?! She remembered you mentioned running into Brock at a bar a few weeks before the semester ended, you’d always spoken so low of him she’d never thought it was a threat. You had proclaimed yourself as gay, but also mentioned that you had boyfriends in the past, and that you’d slept with at least one guy your first year of college, though you’d claimed it was absolutely dreadful. 

Had something happened with you and Brock that night? Had the last few months of your relationship been built on lies? If anyone had asked her before the summer started if she’d ever suspect you of cheating on her she would’ve outwardly laughed at it, knowing that you were completely in love with her, but now…now she was suspicious. Or did you just happen to jump in bed with him the second you got back to D.C.?

Casey couldn’t keep her head from spinning, this was too much, having you out of her life wasn’t ever what she wanted. As angry as she was at the way you’d handled things, she had some tiny glimmer of hope that you’d show up at Harvard in September and maybe, just maybe, if her fragile heart could possibly handle anymore torture, that you would reconcile. She knew she’d probably have to deal with you being with someone else, but for it to happen this quickly, and it be a man?? And for you to already be engaged?!

She was wrong those weeks ago, she was now completely and utterly heartbroken…


	6. Chapter 6

You very reluctantly moved your things into the Lexington’s guest house the next morning, you’d been so broken and beaten down over the past month you simply let things happen around you. Either your parents or Brock’s were with you at all the medical appointments, Brock showed up to one, you knew he didn’t give a fuck about the baby, but expected at least a little bit more from him. He always blamed work, promising that he’d be at the next one, but honestly you didn’t care, you wanted to be away from him as long as possible.

You claimed the smell of his cologne was making you sick, opting to sleep in a separate bedroom, trying to keep his prying hands away from you as much as possible. You were thankful that both sets of parents refused to have a pregnant bride at the wedding, buying you more time to figure out what your plan was to get out of this horrible situation. You played the “too tired” card when they wanted you to go look at venues, and were happy that your changing body made dress appointments out of the question. 

Brock was too handsy the first few months, forcing himself on you on more than one occasion, you tried with what little strength you had left to fight against him but he always overpowered you. When you started showing he backed off completely, commented that you were too much of a whale to even think about getting hard around, (thank fucking god).

You gave birth in April, a beautiful little girl named Ella, who instantly became your only reason to hold onto living. Life may have been built upon riches, surrounded by whatever you wanted or needed at the flick of a hand, but that wasn’t the life you wanted. However when you looked down into your daughters bright blue eyes, you knew that it was worth living, that all this pain at least brought you something that you never realized you could love as much as you did. Ella’s birthday was so close to what would have been your graduation day, it kept you thinking about how different things were supposed to be. As much as you were thankful for Ella you ached for that beautiful life in New York, you often found your mind dreaming of Casey in those midnight feedings and cry-fests.

The years seemed to pass faster than you’d expected, Brock was always working, not to mention constantly cheating on you, (which you didn’t even consider as cheating since you didn’t consider him a fiancee). It was only a matter of time ’til he got caught and his reputation ruined, right? You spent your time raising your daughter the best you could, trying to keep her away from the prying hands of Mrs Lexington, who had an unnatural attachment to her, constantly wanting to pull her granddaughter away from you. You attended numerous events on Brock’s arm, much to your dismay, there were a smattering of dinners, galas, campaign related events, whatever he could think of, he was sure to drag his Vanderbilt fiancee to. You simply….survived…you were a shell of the person you were back at Harvard, you’d lost your light, your spark, you lived day to day, hoping for it to end without too much drama. Brock isolated you completely to himself and his parents, occasionally letting you see your own parents (not that that was much of a break), you’d been fairly close to your sister in law (who once finding a moment alone admitted that Brock had cornered and assaulted her at a party. Though not as far as he’d gotten with you, she believed you, and felt horrible that you were trapped in such a shitty situation) and now you didn’t even have contact with Sarah or your own brother. 

Brock expected you to do everything around the house, since you were home all day _‘doing nothing’_ anyways, dinner had to be ready, the house had to be clean, and you had to be presentable, it was absolute torture, but you were simply too tired to bother to argue. You were worried that if you started getting defensive, try to fight back that he’d escalate, he’d already choked you out one of the nights he managed to pin you down in the dark of the bedroom…

You managed to keep pushing the wedding, conflicting over prenup details on both sides, unable to agree on a reception location, or claiming you really should lose more baby weight before marrying a Lexington. You always let someone else speak first when it came to wedding details so you could oppose them in some way or another, if there was one thing you hadn’t lost it was your lawyer brain, the ability to very discreetly fight your way through things without the other party even realizing. Years had passed when your Mother finally booked you an appointment at Kleinfeld’s to find a dress after Brock had admitted you’d finally lost enough weight. (Thank God for midday pizza and chicken fingers that helped you hold out for so long).You hummed and hawed over dresses for a week before the assistant brought out one that literally took your breath away when you saw yourself in the mirror. There was no hiding your true reaction, it was nearly identical to one on your Pinterest board….the one you shared with Casey… Your Mom saw your glee and instantly bought it, and your moment of euphoria collapsed around you as you remembered what your reality currently was. 

Then it happened…it took the bastard _four and a half fucking years,_ but he finally did it. Brock was arrested, caught in the middle of a sex party trafficking ring, some underage girl naked underneath him, his tox screen coming back positive for multiple drugs. There was no way Daddy’s money was buying his way out of this one, it was all over the news, the fucking National news, a candidate for the Republican party as deep into trouble as he was? Now everyone finally knew he was complete trash.

You feigned heartbreak to both sets of parents, as if you could never imagine your fiancee doing something so drastically horrible. Your parents were lightning quick to “ _make”_ you publicly break off the engagement, there was no way a Vanderbilt would be associated with someone like that. You felt an incredible lifting of weight off your shoulders, politely stating to your parents that their restrictions with your trust fund involved you going back to Cambridge, or talking to Casey, and you wanted to be in New York with no intentions of contacting her. Your Mother practically smirked, it was as if four years ago you resurfaced, ready to take on a legal matter. You claimed, very realistically, that you couldn’t have possibly had any savings built up since Brock made sure you never worked a day during your engagement, the marriage never happened so you weren’t about to get any money from the prenup, and thus you needed the trust fund to get you settled. With watery eyes you looked to them, saying you couldn’t imagine living another day this close to your cheating bastard of an ex-fiancee, that you needed to get out and start over, and their granddaughter was part of the picture now, they didn’t want her living in struggle did they? It’s not like Brock ever showed a shred of interest in Ella anyways. It was with a promise that they would be allowed to visit whenever they pleased, or that you would bring their granddaughter back to see them for holidays that they agreed. 

Your Mother was more accepting, commenting on the trauma of a very public cheating scandal you’d had to live through, she wanted the Lexington’s as far away from you as possible, even mentioning that you should file for sole custody, which you did, a drug and statutory rape charge was more than enough. The judge on your case barely read the charges against Brock before deeming him an unfit parent, granting you sole custody of Ella with a swift bang of her gavel, and that was the last you saw of him. Your bags had been packed for weeks, simply waiting for the hearing before you took off to New York, an apartment already lined up, and a kindergarten lined up for Ella.

***

Casey had been at the 16th precinct working over a new case with the SVU squad for the entire length of her morning when they took a brief coffee break. Munch was quick to break out the paper, practically laughing at the cover story, reading out that the infamous Brock Lexington who’d been running for the Republican party had been arrested for statutory rape and multiple drug charges, his fiancee promptly dumping his ass and filing for solo custody of their 4 year old. 

Her heart clenched, it may have been years since she’d spoken to you, but you haunted her dreams and thoughts more often than she wanted to let on to. You had a daughter…more importantly, your comments about Brock were completely on par, what the hell had happened to make you agree to marrying him….and a 4 and a half year engagement? That seemed insanely odd, especially for the uppity type families you both came from, lost in thought she didn’t realize she’d paused with her coffee cup halfway to her mouth.

“Casey, you okay?” Liv’s voice broke into her thoughts, she shook out of it, faking a smile at the detective, 

“Yeah…I just…I went to Harvard with someone who knew him, she always said he was a huge douche bag…” She took a swig of the warm beverage, Liv quirked her brow, it was rare for her to mention her time at Harvard, especially her friends, “Hey, you’ve got this for now right? I’ve got a couple other things I need to finish up at my office.” Cragen nodded to her in response and she was quick to made it back to the D.A.’s office.

Truth be told, that case was the only one she was working on at the time, but she needed to know more about what the hell happened in the last four years. She’d been surprised when you hadn’t shown up at Harvard your final September, it had been your number one dream to be a lawyer, not to mention all hope of reconciliation was blown up at that point. It was soon after that your and Brock’s pregnancy announcement graced the national papers and she nearly puked at that. The fact that you were choosing money and family legacy over what she’d had with you made her heart rip apart again, sending her into a downward spiral that almost cost her graduating Harvard.

Casey was unimpressed when she typed your name into Google, coming up with not a lot of hits, mainly galas, charities and the whatnot, you on Brock’s arm, you may have been smiling but she could tell from your eyes you weren’t completely happy. She tried Brock’s name instead, the first few hundred hits about his arrest, but there were photos of you, mainly paparazzi shots from outside the courthouse, clearly in the midst of your custody battle. Nothing she found helped her investigation, but she kept finding herself staring at the photos of you, you’d aged beyond gracefully, and she couldn’t help but feel a twinge in her heart.

She went back to your name, even so much as to pull up the social media she’d blocked you on so recklessly those years ago, and that was where she found it. There wasn’t a single photo of Brock, everything was directed toward you and your daughter. Once in a blue moon your brother or Sarah would pop up, maybe your parents, but it was mainly about your daughter. She spent hours looking at photos, how your eyes shined looking at Ella, the laughing smile on your daughters lips, the complete joy on your face as you tickled her, pushed her on the swings, held her in your arms as she watched Frozen for the millionth time, the way you laughed at the toddlers ridiculous jokes. There was no doubt in her mind that you loved this little girl more than anything in your entire life, and so much of her absolutely ached that she wasn’t with you to experience all of it. She’d never been big on the idea of having kids, but all of this was definitely starting to change her mind…


	7. Chapter 7

Your first few months in New York were spent on edge, you were still slowly finding your footing after so many years of emotional damage, but it helped immensely to not by buried under all the pressure of two strict families. You kept tabs on Brock’s trail, disappointed to learn that he’d taken a deal and his sentence landed him with a mere 6 months in jail. At least it was something.

You rented a small two bedroom apartment on the Upper West Side, a few blocks away from the school Ella would be starting at in the fall, it wasn’t the Brownstone you’d dreamed of, but the important part was that it was yours. You’d accepted a job as a paralegal at a law firm, thankful that you had enough legal schooling for that. Slowly but surely, you got back to work, and you started to become an advanced version of the woman you were 5 years ago. You’d survived, you’d gotten out safe, and your daughter was safe and happy, that’s all that mattered.

You made sure to spend as much time after work hours with Ella, you explored the city together, she particularly loved the Saturday afternoon playground playdates and watching the horses in Central Park. You were amicable with your coworkers, not really wanting to open up about your past too much (not that half of your dirty laundry was already National news or anything) but accepting of the budding friendships. A few of the Mom’s on the playground had become friendly, your kids got along, you may as well accept the snacks and thermoses secretly filled with rose, right?

Often you thought about Casey, you knew she was in the city, you wanted nothing more than to reach out to her, but she clearly had moved on with her life, a steady and fulfilling career going strong. She had been very adamant on you not contacting her, so you left it. Away from Brock though you were actually able to display some of the photos from your time with her, a small album full of photos sat on your bedside table. It was filled with happy memories, loving moments, notes that were passed during class, movie ticket stubs and every photo you could find of her or the two of you. Ella had asked who she was, especially since you flipped through it practically daily, you told her it was her Auntie Casey, and that you loved her very much. The ever questioning 5 year old asked why she’d never met her Auntie and you were given the difficult task of quickly coming up with a cover story. You told your daughter that Casey and you had lived in different places for a very long time, and hadn’t been talking as much anymore. Ella simply nodded and said that you should write her a letter because she wanted her to come to the next tea party she hosted. You laughed gently at that, giving her a soft kiss on the head, oh how simple and innocent it was to be a child.

***

Casey kept a close eye on Brock’s trail, happy to see that you hadn’t been coerced into staying with him, or coming back, both you and your family absent from every hearing. She was disappointed that the piece of scum ended up with six months, but she knew how things worked, he probably wasn’t the worst criminal that was there. 

A lot of time was spent wondering what you would do, you had a kid to raise, and that was no easy feat on your own. Your parents were probably outraged at the Lexington’s after the scandal, you must’ve simply stayed with them, D.C. seemed like the smart place alongside the Grandparents to help.

There was still some resentment Casey held toward you, she had tried to let it go the best she could over the years, but you seemed to assault her senses. Every time she’d think she’d finally gotten over the way you’d broken up with her, there was a newspaper article, a clip of your family on t.v. or social media. The engagement, the pregnancy, multiple gala events, and then the scandal. It was like she just couldn’t get rid of you, part of her appreciated being able to keep up with your life, and part of her simply hated it. Things seemed to calm down after Brock was sentenced, and she hoped it would stay that way so she could finally move past the various feelings. She instead buried herself in to her work, spending way too many hours between her office and SVU.


	8. Chapter 8

Eight months had passed since you and Ella had moved out to New York and things couldn’t be going better. You were fully on your feet, having moved into the good graces of all the lawyers at the firm you worked for. You finally felt like yourself again, you slipped back into the legal world easier than you’d thought it would be, it was like riding a bike. You were _happy._ Ella was busy making friends and having the time of her life in Kindergarten and you were opening up to more play dates, birthday parties and school gatherings. The other parents were welcoming and friendly, a few of the other Mom’s offering to help out with Ella if you ever needed an extra hand or emergency babysitting, they knew that single parenthood while maintaining a full time career could be a handful. 

Today was a lucky one for you, the case load was light at work and you were given an extra day off. The day was spent running a few errands, cleaning up around the house (which was much easier sans 5 year old) and going over a couple of your old law textbooks to brush up. After lunch you headed over to Ella’s school to pick her up yourself, noticing that it was one of the substitutes outside on pick up duty. Glancing around the playground you couldn’t see her anywhere, your brows furrowed, wondering if she was still inside?

“Hey, I’m here for Ella…?” You half questioned the sub, she looked confused, checking her clipboard.

“Ella Vanderbilt?” You nodded, “She was already picked up.”

“By who?!” You’d already called off her nanny, perhaps she’d be whining about a playdate and another one of the Mom’s signed her out.

“Her father.” The sub stated simply, turning back to face the playground. You felt your heart practically stop before your pulse starting racing, panic coursing through your body.

“No!” You choked out, the sub turned back to you, 

“Is there a problem? Ella called him ‘Daddy’, she was excited to see him.”

“He doesn’t have custody!” Your hand flew to your mouth as you held back the tears threatening to fall from your eyes, “God, he’s out on parole, he’s a damn criminal, he’s not supposed to be anywhere near her!” Your brain started to spin, this couldn’t possibly been happening, he just couldn’t let you be happy could he? “The school was specifically told that only Ella’s nanny or myself were to pick her up, and to immediately call the cops if her father ever showed up!”

A couple of flips through her clipboard and the sub’s face paled as she realized the awful mistake she’d accidentally made. She was quick to radio the principal, who immediately called the police before coming outside to profusely apologize to you himself. It wasn’t often that you threw your family name or status around (never…it was never…you hated even giving your last name out, hell you’d considered legally changing it when you moved to New York) but Ella’s safety was at risk right now, the big guns were blazing.

“You do realize I’m a Vanderbilt, right? As in Senator Fredrick Vanderbilt, that’s his granddaughter that your mistake let get kidnapped. Your ass is on the line here, and you’re on very thin ice.” The principal backed at that, after all, what’d you’d stated was 100% true, not to mention you worked at a law firm, and nearly had a degree’s worth of schooling from Harvard, if anything happened to Ella you’d be sure to take on the school with not a single worry. You were absolutely livid at this point, 

“Let’s not jump straight to kidnapping Ms Vanderbilt, he is her father…” 

“Who DOESN’T HAVE CUSTODY! HE’S ON PAROLE FOR COMMITTING STATUTORY RAPE AND YOU LET MY CHILD WALK AWAY WITH HIM!” You huffed out a breath, “It’s specifically noted ON your check out forms that if he ever showed up you were to _call the police!”_ Groaning, you ran a hand over your face, you thought the jail time would smarten him up at least a bit, it’s not like he’d ever shown any interest in Ella until the custody hearing (and even then it was barely there). Since he hadn’t bothered contacting you since getting out you thought you didn’t need the restraining order but clearly that was a mistake (not that you thought that would make a difference anyways).

After berating the school’s staff a little longer, the police said they were taking you down to Special Victims to talk to some of their detectives, it made sense, not only did the case involve a child and a perp with a sex crime history, but it also involved two pretty high profile parents. Your rage towards the school simmered on the ride over to the precinct, where Captain Cragen introduced himself and his Sergeant Olivia Benson as they moved you into the privacy of his office.

With the rage burnt out, the worry and oh so familiar sense of dread flowed through you with ease. You were terrified, tears brimming your eyes, your hands starting to shake as you took a seat on the couch. Olivia started the conversation, her voice soft and calm, you could tell she must be good at this.

“Ms Vanderbilt, the school said that your ex, Ella’s father picked her up today, that’s correct?” You nodded, not sure if you’d be able to speak without breaking down into a fit of sobs, “And you have sole custody?” Another nod, “Now we know of his recent jail time, aside from that, is there any reason you can think that he might harm Ella? She placed a reassuring hand on your knee, you moved your blurry eyes to meet hers. God, she was really good at this, you felt the last nearly 6 years ready to explode out of you. Sure you’d made some friends over the past little bit but you couldn’t exactly dump that much information on someone you’d met over juice boxes two weeks ago.

“You mean aside from the fact that he completely destroyed my entire fucking life?” You voice shook, tears starting to pour out as you finally opened up about just how horrible he had treated you. “Ella….she’s the product of Brock raping me…” That hit home with Benson, “I was on track to graduate from law school, but had to go home for my brother’s engagement. Brock…he drugged me…raped me without me even knowing it happened.” You choked on a sob, “I don’t even like men…” You sobbed against your hands, Cragen quickly moved a box of tissues to the table in front of you, Olivia gently encouraging you to continue, and you did, pouring your heart and story out to complete strangers about every single shred of horrible deed, abuse, sexual assault and more that you’d been on the receiving end of over the past 5 years. 

When you’d finally finished (there were multiple intermissions to let out a few quiet sobs, you just wanted your daughter back)

“Please….my daughter’s all I have left…Brock took everything I ever had from me, he demolished me….I can’t let him do that to her, I can’t let him do this to me again…” Your voice was watery, shaky, another bout of emotion ready to take over. Benson gave you a sympathetic smile, 

“We’re going to do everything we can, I promise Y/N.” She gave your shoulder a reassuring squeeze before starting to leave the room.

“Oh…” You shook your head as your brain cleared a bit, “you’ll want to run his Mother’s financials too…she might be with him…she always had this overly attached obsession to Ella, Brock didn’t even really care about the custody battle…” She nodded, exiting the room with Cragen to start building a case to find out what exactly was going on.

***

“You called me in early on this one.” Casey commented to Cragen as he greeted her at the elevator,

“Yeah well it’s a doozy, and high profile I wanted to get you up to speed as soon as I could and keep things out of the press.”

“Okay…” She quirked a brow at the Captain, he took a breath as he started,

“Kidnapped little girl, Mom has full custody, Dad’s the one who picked her up from school today despite the flag on her file that that was strictly prohibited, there’s been no contact since she left him.”

“And that’s a doozy because?”

“He completely destroyed her life Case, drugged her and raped her, the pregnancy trapped her with him for 5 years, he broke up her at the time relationship, forced her to drop out of school, her career went to the toilet. He emotionally, physically and sexually abused her for five years before cheating on her, she’s a wreck, that little girl is all she has left.” 

“Jesus…you said high profile?”

“Girl’s parents are Brock Lexington and Y/N Vanderbilt.” That caused Casey to screech to a halt, turning to face Cragen, her heart beating faster in her chest, you were in New York?!

“What.” Her voice was level, she at least had to keep her cool in front of her co workers.

“I know…” Cragen gestured towards the meeting room they’d moved you into, you were seated on the couch, legs pulled up crossed, head buried in your hands.

“You said that Brock _personally_ broke up her last relationship?” She couldn’t take her eyes off you, a sense of warmth moving through her.

“Yeah…after he drugged her he stole her phone, sent texts to her girlfriend then wiped the phone so Y/N would have no idea. She sounded more upset about that than the five years of abuse she put up with. This guy’s a real piece of work Casey, he just got out of prison on drug and statutory charges, we need to get him permanently off the streets.”

“I’ll say…” She turned back to him, “Do you mind if I have a minute with her?”

“Go ahead. I’ll be in my office.” 

Casey felt anxiety bubble up in her chest, she’d had no idea you were even living in the same city, she wondered how many times you’d been on the opposite side of the street and she had no idea. She felt her hand tremor as she reached for the door handle, a gentle knock on the frame before she entered, shutting it behind her. 

The sound of the movement pulled you from the nightmares burning through your imagination, you wiped your eyes with your sleeve as you looked up. The face staring back at you was not one of the detectives, and certainly wasn’t one you’d expected to see. You stilled, brows furrowed, your brain was already so frazzled from everything going on you thought you must be seeing things. It was very clear when you weren’t when she softly spoke, her voice still able to make you absolutely weak after all these years.

“I didn’t know you were in New York…” You could see the brim of tears stinging her eyes, it really was her…her hair was longer, it was blonde, and she was just as stunningly beautiful as the day you’d said goodbye to her at Harvard. You tumbled over a response, unsure how to even breech the situation (never mind the whole kidnapping situation…)

“I…didn’t want to bother you…” You dropped your head back down, a tear trailing down your nose before it dropped into your lap, “You said you never wanted to hear from me again…” You curled your arms around yourself, you were already in so much fucking pain, you really didn’t want to do this now. Casey’s heart clenched at the sorrow dripping from your words when you replied, she certainly hadn’t expected this when she’d walked into work that morning. “What’re you doing here?” You gave her a small glance at that, she moved slightly into the room, pulling a chair out to sit across from you.

“I’m the A.D.A. for Special Victims…Captain Cragen wanted me as up to speed on your case as soon as possible.” You let out a saddened scoff at that, of course, of fucking course, Casey with the esteemed lawyer job and you at what felt like rock bottom…again… “And…maybe I was a little too harsh in that voicemail…and wrong…”

“Why? Feeling guilty ‘cause my kids’s missing?” 

“No…” She spoke softly, “Because Cragen briefed me on the case before he said who you were, and he mentioned that it was Brock that destroyed your last relationship…that he sent those texts.”

“Oh Casey, did you actually think I’d _ever_ leave you?” Her name coming off your lips was music to her ears, God the timing was literally horrible but all she wanted in that second was to pull you against her and kiss you ’til you were both gasping for air. She settled for reaching out to rub your knee, lingering perhaps a little too long.

“I guess we’re all young and stupid sometimes?” You cracked a smile at that, an actual, genuine smile. 

“I like the blonde..” The two of you paused a moment, you relished in at least a second of something positive coming out of the situation. The brief moment was interrupted when the door swung open again, Casey dropped her hand from your knee as you both looked towards the door. 

“We found a rental car pop up on his financials, we’ve got a bolo out on it.” Olivia stated, you were thankful that the squad hadn’t been leaving you in the dark on their process. “Y/N…is there any chance that Mrs Lexington has a hobby of hunting?” Your heart clenched, that wasn’t a good sign.

“No…why?” Liv sighed heavily, 

“Her financials popped up a gun purchased a few days ago in the city.” 

“She bought it for him…he wouldn’t be able to under his parole.” You shuddered, “Oh God…” Casey couldn’t help herself, instinctively moving off the chair to beside you on the couch, wrapping an arm around you as you automatically leaned into her shoulder. “He’s gonna kill her?” 

“We’re… more concerned about you.” You looked up to the detective, a confused look on your tear stained face, “He wasn’t exactly gentle to you when you were together…and there’s no faster way to solo custody.” Your expression changed to horrified, Brock definitely wasn’t past that. “If he found Ella’s school, there’s no doubt he can get your address, I don’t want you going home until we solve this.”

“But..where..?” 

“I’ve got a spare room.” Casey blurted out, it was a complete lie, but Benson didn’t need to know that, she just wanted to be there for you. You looked up at her, 

“You sure?” She had a soft smile, 

“Be just like college all over again.” You didn’t miss the hidden meaning there.

“You went to college together?” Olivia questioned, the comfortability in the room making a little more sense now.

“Harvard actually…that’s where I was when all of this started.” You replied

“Okay. Stay alert, we’ll keep you posted Y/N, trust me…we’re gonna find Ella.”


	9. Chapter 9

7 hours later the detectives had found the rental car Brock had rented, problem was it was returned to the rental company, clerk saying that they’d simply returned it without renting another one. An amber alert was obviously already in place for Ella, they put out bolo’s on all of the other vehicles belonging to the Lexington’s. Things were getting trickier as the amber alert let Brock know that the police were involved, both him and his Mother had individually made very large withdrawals from their bank accounts from various ATM’s around the city. Ella wasn’t with them on any of the tapes and they couldn’t get a read on what vehicles they were in from the footage either. At one point you’d gotten a text from a burner saying ‘ _She’s safe, I’m not going to hurt her, call your pigs off’_ When TARU traced its coordinates, they found it in a garbage can. 

Every piece of news had you more worried, you’d cried yourself out, taking to pacing back and fourth across Casey’s living room, glass of scotch in hand, simply trying to deal with everything. She’d tried to keep you distracted asking about Ella, you’d told her a number of stories, talked about all the things the little girl loved, the funny little quips she’d say, her favourite movies, songs, how she’d constantly ask Alexa to play the Frozen soundtrack and proceed to scream sing while she danced with her “ice powers” through the house for hours on end. Casey watched your face light up when you talked about Ella, the soft smile on your face as you reminisced, she found herself falling in love with the little girl before she’d even met her. 

She stood from the couch as you continued to pace, coming to stand in front of you, placing her hands on your biceps, affectively stopping you in your tracks.

“If I keep letting you do that, you’re gonna burn a hole in my floor.” 

“Sorry…” You muttered, dropping your head. She gently took the glass of scotch out of your hand, placing it on the coffee table before rubbing your arms encouragingly.

“They’re gonna find her…trust me Y/N, these guys are good at their jobs.”

“I know…” You dared yourself to look up at her, at this proximity you could see the glint in her eye, there was no denying the spark that flew through the room. Before Casey could let her eyes flick down to your lips she pulled you into a deep hug, hand gently stroking the back of your hair, you automatically wrapped your arms around her, sinking into the embrace that you’d been aching for for years. “I know that she’s safe.” You murmured against her neck, “I just don’t want Brock to take her somewhere where we can’t find and I never see her again…she’s _all_ I have.”

“Are you _sure_ that Brock won’t hurt her?”

“We know his Mom’s there too, there’s no way she’d hurt Ella or let Brock do anything to her.” You buried yourself deeper against Casey, she hadn’t changed her perfume, the scent of it was so distinctively her and it was having a very calming effect on you.

“We’re gonna get her back.” She whispered against your head, instinctively laying her lips against your hair softly. 

You felt the kiss like you’d been struck by lightning, you were sure you were gonna blink and the whole thing was going to be some horrible dream inside a nightmare. Your heart hammered in your chest as you pulled away every so slightly, Casey’s hand rose to stroke your face, her eyes filled with concern, hesitancy, they searched yours for a single ounce of refusal. When your eyes darted from hers to her lips, your own tongue darting out to wet yours she took that as a sign of consent, moving practically in slow motion, giving you time to back away before her lips met yours in a small, soft kiss. You pulled her against you as her hand moved to bury itself into your hair, lips moving gracefully in a perfectly synchronized dance neither of you had forgotten. If the kiss laid against your hair was a lightning strike, this was like a set of fireworks going off inside you heart, you let out a breathy gasp against her lips and Casey took that chance to slip her tongue into your mouth. She could taste the scotch against your tongue, the minty-ness of your chapstick, she let out a soft hum of satisfaction. You finally resurfaced, breathily gasping for air, silently searching each others faces for a sign of how the other was feeling.

“Sorry…”She started to apologize, “That was probably a bit much, timing’s not exactly great…” She started to pull away, you jerked on her arms, pulling her back to your lips for another kiss, smaller this time.

“No…it was perfect…” Your eyes were welling with tears, Casey was so gentle, so soft, loving and caring, it was nothing like the trauma you’d been forced into previously. She gently lifted your chin, 

“Y/N…”

“Just…help me forget..all the things he did…please?” Her heart fell apart at the sorrow in your voice, at the torture Brock had put you through, it made her livid, all she wanted right now was for you to be happy, and she was damn sure she was going to at least distract you from the craziness going on right now for the rest of the night.

***

When you awoke in the morning you could smell coffee brewing, noticing your clothes folded neatly, placed on chair beside you, you tossed them on before padding out to the kitchen. There was a slight sense of awkwardness in the air,

“Morning.” You grumbled, Casey let out a light chuckle at that, pouring you a cup of coffee, passing it off to you.

“Morning.” There was a beat of silence before you both started to speak at the same time, cutting each other off, an awkward air of laughter, 

“You go first…” You gently smiled over at her, she let out a breath of a sigh.

“Are…are we…good?” She scrunched up her face in confusion at her own words, then started sputtering out, speaking so fast she almost tripped over her words, “I mean obviously there’s a lot to unpack here, and you’ve got Ella to worry about, but—“ You moved over to her, placing a finger to lips, kissing her cheek.

“We’re good.” She smiled, her eyes full of adoration, “We can figure things out? Or at least try to? I understand if you don’t want to, a kid was never part of the plan.”

“No!” Casey was quick to shoot back, “I mean…I do want to figure things out.” Her hand stroked yours, “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you. It seemed like every time I was able to pretend to convince myself I wasn’t in love with you anymore you’d pop up in the paper or on the news. To be completely honest…after news of your split hit, I may have done some social media stalking…” You smirked at that,

“Creep.” She gave a huff of a laugh, the air in the room coming to a comfortable calm, she gently pulled you into a soft hug, humming against your hair. You were more than happy with the fact that she didn’t hate you, that you were able to work through some of the issues, that she forgave you for staying in D.C. The silence of the moment was broken by your phone pinging, you jumped, racing to the island where you’d left it the night before, praying it was news on Ella. 

It wasn’t. It was your boss, you’d taken a few handfuls of files home when she’d given you the day off and needed them back in the office today. Casey wasn’t sure she was okay with you going back to your apartment alone, but had to get into work with not enough time to go with you. She offered to call Liv to get you an escort, but you affirmed her it was more than okay for you to take a 5 minute trip to your apartment. You gave her one last kiss before saying you’d meet her at the precinct later and were out the door.

Once back at your apartment, you let the door fall shut behind you, hurrying into your bedroom to quickly change, lost in your mind, replaying the moments from the night before, buried in Casey’s arms as she showed you just how much she’d missed you. You wished that for once things would go good for you, and actually stay good, and oh how wrong you were.

You were in the midst of pulling on a blazer when you saw him, you jumped, yelping at the fright. Brock had that usual slimy grin on his face as he sauntered towards you,

“Thought I told you to call the pigs off.”

“What the fuck do you want?” He stopped in his tracks, you hadn’t spoken back to him since you’d gotten pregnant, this wasn’t what he expected. But you weren’t that same you, the shell of a being, you’d fixed yourself since being in New York. You also thought Casey might have had an affect on you.

“When did you get so fucking mouthy sweetheart?”

“I am not your sweetheart.” You growled, “Give me Ella back and get the fuck out of my apartment!”

“You’re not getting her back, she’s my fucking daughter too, and she deserves the life only I can give her.”

“You’re on fucking parole Brock, you’re not even allowed 50 yards near a school, how the fuck do you think you’re going to be a good Father!? You certainly weren’t the first 5 years of her life!” He got right up in your face, glaring down at you, 

“You know…I liked you a hell of a lot better when you were fucking silent.” You shoved him out of your way, 

“You’re fucking trash…I’m calling the cops.” You had your back turned to him, pulling your phone out of your pocket, 

“What good will that do if you’re dead by the time they get here.” You whipped around at the sound of the gun clocking. A surge of fear shot through you, how the fuck did you forget about the gun Mrs Lexington had bought?!

“You do that…you go back to jail…for life this time. And Ella’s left with no one.”

“My Mother’ll take great care of her, don’t worry sweetheart. Now put the phone down.” You glared him down, half daring him to do it, if he was going to be this constant thorn in your side through your entire life, why bother? When you didn’t move, he moved forward, pistol whipping you across the forehead, you yelped, vision blurring as you collapsed, the last thing you remembered was a shot blasting out, your ears ringing.

***

Over at SVU things were progressing much better than the previous day, an employee at a truck stop diner at the edge of New York recognized Mrs Lexington from the news surrounding her sons scandal, and realized that the little girl with her was the same one from the Amber Alert. The police were alerted and they were stopped by Fin and Olivia just before they crossed State borders.

Casey got the call at her office and immediately left for the 16th precinct, Brock may have still been in the wind, but she knew he’d turn up eventually. She’d just gotten into the bull pen, Cragen updating her when Rita Calhoun walked in, she rolled her eyes at the defence attorney.

“ _Please_ don’t tell me you’ve stooped so low as to represent Lexington….” Rita’s brow furrowed, 

“No, I’m looking for Y/N.”

“Why?”

“She’s my paralegal.” Casey took a moment to absorb that information in, “I called her this morning to bring in some files she’d taken home, she said she was on her way to get them, but she still hasn’t showed. I figured there was an update in the case, is she here?” Casey looked towards Cragen for the answer, who looked blankly back at her.

“I thought she was with you.” He simply stated

“I thought she was here…” Amaro interrupted from his desk, 

“Cap, we’ve got shots fired, potential domestic Columbus and West 97th.”

“Please, tell me why that is important to us right now?” Cragen replied,

“It’s Y/N Vanderbilt’s building…”

“Shit.” He sighed, “Well, let’s go!” He turned to the two lawyers, “Stay here, update the others when they get back.” Casey tried to protest, but she didn’t have an excuse aside from being your ‘friend from college’ her heart was hammering in her chest, and she was about ready to murder Brock Lexington on sight the first time she laid eyes on him. Rita sighed heavily at his departure, starting to make her own when Casey’s arm shot out, grabbing her elbow,

“You should probably stay…” The older woman turned back, confused, “I’m gonna need to recuse myself from this case, and Y/N’s going to need a good lawyer.” Rita quirked a brow, “I’ll explain later.”

***

20 minutes later, Olivia, and Fin showed back up at the precinct, an older woman grumbling beside Fin as a small blonde ball of energy practically skipped beside Liv. The sergeant took a minute to place Ella in the interview room they used for kids, pulling out some colouring and telling her to help herself to the toys and she’d be right back before approaching Casey.

“Case, she’s fine. She wasn’t hurt at all, and wasn’t scared, as far as she’s concerned, she went for a road trip with her Gramma.” Liv started, noticing how tense she looked, the watering in her eyes, “Where’s Vanderbilt?”

“That’s exactly the problem…” Liv gave a confused look as she grabbed a couple of juice boxes from the fridge, “She went back to her apartment to grab some paperwork for her boss, neighbours called in a domestic and shots fired.”

“What?” Their voices were hushed, quiet quick whispers between the women, 

“Last I heard paramedics were treating her for a head lac and a gunshot wound to the abdomen.” Casey was doing everything to keep her voice from shaking, she dabbed at her eyes quickly, taking a deep breath to calm herself.

“Lexington?”

“I’m sure it was him, but he’s in the wind.”

“Jesus…” Olivia turned back to the interview room where Ella was deep in concentration on a colouring page, even from the distance Casey could see her lower lip tugged into her mouth in the exact same fashion you did when you were focussed on something important.

“I called her parents, they’re flying in from D.C. now.”

“Well, you wanna help me entertain Ella in the meantime?” Casey stared over at the girl, she’d learnt so much about her in the past 24 hours she felt like she already knew her, but there was still some sense of nervousness. She usually wasn’t the kid loving type, and you’d mentioned Ella didn’t do well with strange adults since she’d been so isolated when you’d been living in D.C. Olivia broke into her thoughts, tapping her elbow “C’mon…” 

The two women entered the room, Liv placed the juice box down in front of Ella while Casey took a seat on one of the regular sized chairs at the angle beside her. 

“Thank you.” Ella murmured out, her mouth closing around the straw as she looked up at the A.D.A. a look of complete perplexity sketched across her face as she practically stared the woman down. “You look like Auntie Casey but with different hair.”

“What?” Her voice was soft, quiet, she was taken aback by the comment, not to mention she’d never been stared down by a 5 year old and felt intimidated by it.

“Auntie Casey has red hair, like Ariel.” Ella stated it so simply, she took another gulp of her juice box, “What’s your name?” The A.D.A hummed, now or never I guess, 

“Casey...” Ella’s face burst into the biggest grin as she jumped up from the table.

“Auntie Casey! It is you!” She basically launched herself into Casey’s lap, crawling perfectly into her arms, “Momma talks about you all the time she says she really loves you.” Words were tumbling out of Ella’s mouth excitedly, “Did you know that? We look at your photo book every night and she tells me stories about you and how much fun you had together she keeps a present for you tied in the back of the book in case she saw you again did you know that?”

“A present?” Casey was more than lost right now, she definitely didn’t expect this, you’d left this out last night.

“Yeah!” Ella’s eyes sparkled with that same look as yours when you saw your food coming at a restaurant “Issa really pretty ring I asked to wear it when I played dress up once but she says it’s more ‘portant than that and it only belongs to you because you’re the only person she loves kinda like the one Daddy gave her before he had to go to timeout but she says yours is way more special than that one ever was.” Casey was in disbelief, you’d bought a ring? You _still had_ the ring? (I mean, she still had the one she’d bought for you, but still…) Ella took her silence for a clue to continue, “Momma said your eyes sparkled at the beach fireworks that’s when she was gunna give it to you.” 

Casey felt her heart clench at that, doing her best to hold back the tears that wanted to spring into her eyes, not only had you bought the ring but you knew when you were going to propose, and it was so similar to hers, you were serious about escaping D.C. early, you knew how much she loved that beach party in the Hamptons….you’d been on the exact same page the entire goddamn time. She looked up at Olivia, who had a knowing, but gentle smirk on her face, her head tilted as she started to truly understand Casey’s relationship with you.

“Hey Ella,” She called softly, “I’ve got to make a couple of phone calls, is it okay if I leave you here with _Auntie_ Casey?”

“Yes!” The girl replied enthusiastically, “You wanna colour with me?!” The gleam in her eyes was so adorable it practically melted Casey,

“Absolutely.” She smiled down at Ella who was quick to jump off her lap and drag her over to the table with a level of surprising strength for a 5 year old.


	10. Chapter 10

Over the next few hours, Casey got updates from Cragen on your condition, she wanted nothing more than to race down to Bellevue, but she’d taken such a liking to Ella (who practically whined every time Casey tried to leave her side…much like her mother…) who’d obviously taken a liking to her. They had uni’s on the ground trying to find Brock, his picture was sent out to the news with a tip line opened for any information. Ella had moved into sitting on her lap on the couch after asking if there was an I-pad so she could watch Frozen, Casey laughed to herself, remembering your comments about the movie and your daughter earlier. The girl had fallen asleep halfway through the first movie, curling herself around Casey’s body as the A.D.A. found her hand softly moving through her hair, comforted by the way Ella held on to her, and actually entertained by the movie.

Outside of the interview room Olivia noticed an older, frazzled looking couple enter the bullpen, she rose to greet them.

“We heard our granddaughter was here?” The woman spoke, a shake in her voice, 

“Mr and Mrs Vanderbilt?” Olivia questioned, her eyes glancing towards the interview room,

“Yes. Where’s Y/N? We want to get Ella and be there when Y/N wakes up.” Your Father’s voice shook almost more than your Mother’s. 

“Y/N’s still in surgery over at Bellevue, I can take you there if you’d like.”

“We need Ella!” Your father was more than adamant on that, 

“Sir…Ella’s asleep right now, she’s gone through a lot and I’d hate to bother her right now. She doesn’t need the trauma of a hospital, trust me. I’ll take you to your daughter but Ella should stay here.” 

“Who’s that in there with her?! She should be with family right now!” Wow, this man really wasn’t letting it drop.

“That’s our A.D.A., Casey Novak,” Liv replied, “Ella took a liking to her, it would be a much better idea to leave her here with her while you see your daughter.”

“Casey Novak?!” Your father’s voice rung through the squad room, “You can’t be serious.” Olivia’s face furrowed at that, you clearly had very personal history with Casey, why did your family seem so against her?

“She’s the Special Victims lawyer Sir, she handles cases like this all the time.”

“You can’t seriously think that a _Novak_ is going to be let to handle a Vanderbilt case!” It was very clear your father was in charge. Benson didn’t notice the second pair coming off the elevator behind them.

“Excuse me?!” A voice rung out behind the pair as Mr Novak butted into the room, “My daughter’s one of the best A.D.A.’s New York has, and if I remember correctly, your family is the reason we’re dealing with all of this anyways!”

“Our family?! Y/N was happy with Brock until he cheated on her!” Your mother shot back

“Oh please!” It was Mrs Novak this time, “Y’N hated spending time in D.C. she was already upset about having to go back that year.”

“And what, you’re upset because she broke up with Casey that summer?! Your daughter wasn’t good enough, she chose Brock instead!” Your Father, the ever believer in the Lexington family.

“You really believe that?” Mrs Novak spoke again, moving closer to the pair, “You believe that your daughter who came out to you as gay before she left for college seriously let a piece of scum like Brock marry her? He assaulted her, if it wasn’t for him none of this would’ve ever happened! Its your fault she’s got even ties to the Lexington’s in the first place and that Ella was kidnapped, not to mention the fact that she’s in the hospital. At least when she came to us she was actually loved and appreciated!!”

“How dare you talk to me like that!” Mr Vanderbilt moved forward, “Your daughter ruined everything that Y/N was built to be! She deserved so much more—“

“HEY!” A loud voice shouted across the room, Casey, who had barely managed to close the door to the interview room behind her, “I’ve got an upset, sleeping 5 year old in here and your yelling is going to wake her up, so please….calm the _fuck_ down.” Olivia’s eyes widened, she’d never heard Casey swear in a work setting.

“Is she okay??” You Mother practically ran forward, Casey stopping her with an outstretched hand,

“She’s perfectly fine, and _asleep._ You should really get to the hospital if you care about your daughter, she’s gonna need someone to wake up to.” 

Your parents looked between each other, Olivia once again mentioned she would drive them and the three finally left the squad room, giving Casey a chance to let out a heavy sigh. She looked up at her parents, 

“You know…I’m a big girl you really didn’t need to come down here…” Her mother pulled her into a brief hug, 

“Are you kidding me? Y/N shows up after this many years…after what her daughter said about you…sweetheart, please….do what’s right..it’s what you both deserve..”

****  
A few hours later and you’d finally come to, you’d grumbled, still half high to the nurses, asking if there was anyone there to see you, your head pounding. When they’d replied that there were some detectives that wanted to talk to, and your parents were there, you groggily asked if they could send your parents away. They’d waited a bit for you to come off the anesthesia a bit more before double checking with you, you only wanted to talk to Casey and your daughter, but you were very adamant on your family going to fuck themselves, you didn’t even know how or why they were there. The news got relayed that you _“didn’t want visitors”_ and your family should wait nearby at a hotel before the nursing staff relayed another one of your messages, explaining that you’d talk to detectives, but mainly wanted Casey and Ella to be there. When they entered your hospital room, Ella was on her hip, you were still out, Casey remembered you telling her that anesthesia knocked you out like a bitch so she moved two of the more comfortable chairs closer to your bedside, settling in one with Ella on her lap as she propped her legs up in the other one.

“Is Momma okay?” She felt the tension in the girls body, she softly stroked her back,

“She’s fine baby, she’s just sleeping, she’ll wake up soon.” Ella took a look at you, clearly concerned but not able to fully understand it as she turned over in Casey’s lap,

“Okay…” She snuggled up against the woman, “Can we watch Frozen 2 this time?.” Casey laughed lightly, burying her lips against Ella’s head, giving her a soft kiss,

“Of course.” She set up the I-pad so they could both watch the movie, it wasn’t long before she felt Ella’s breathing regulate, a quick glance down saw that she’d fallen asleep, and as much as she was actually invested in the movie, she found herself leaning back against the chair. She’d only meant to rest her eyes, but with Ella’s warmth curled against her chest, the exhaustion of the last few days hit her.

***

You swore you’d come to earlier to see your daughter buried in the lap of your ex, but there was no believing that, the meds must have had you hallucinating as you succumbed back under, a world of weird dreams and feeling like you weren’t even asleep coming for you. Then you heard it, the unmistakable sound of ‘ _Into the Unknown’_ for what felt like the literal millionth time. You groaned, rolling towards the sound, wincing at the pain in your side, your eyes were blurry as you opened them, rubbing them to the scene in front of you. You were shocked when the scene was none other than Casey Novak, arms curled around your sleeping daughter, the lawyers attention completely entranced by none other than Frozen 2, you could almost make out the tears in her eyes.

“You getting soft on me Novak?” You croaked out, her head shot up, a whole new level of tears meeting her eyes,

“Y/N…oh my god…” She glanced around wildly, trying to figure out what to do with Ella, 

“She sleeps like a goddamn log, move her to the bed.” You moved to the opposite edge, leaving room for both your daughter and Casey. She gently put Ella down, you wrapped an arm around her, pulling you to her, ever so thankful that she was safe away from Brock. “Thank you…”you choked out. Casey huffed, 

“i didn’t do anything…this was all Liv and Fin…”

“You still helped.” Your eyes bore up at her, brimming with tears, “And I just woke up to my daughter in your arms, that’s not nothing.” Casey gave a soft smile at that, 

“No..it’s not..” She leaned over you, giving your cheek a kiss, as she pulled away, love in her eyes, you pulled her back, kissing her lips. 

“Thank you…” You gestured towards the I-pad, “I hope she didn’t make you watch it a million times.” Casey chuckled, 

“We watched the first one twice, she fell asleep in both times. The..snowman’s…Christmas something or other? She at least stayed awake for, when we got here she demanded the sequel, I think between multiple viewings she might’ve seen all of it..” 

“Oh God…I’m so sorry baby..” Her heart rate picked up at the rate of the pet name

“Honestly, it’s okay,” She began, “I’d never seen them and…they’re actually pretty good movies.” You laughed at that, the pain causing you to clench your abdomen. Casey’s face shot to one of concern, “You okay?”

“Yeah…just…getting shot kinda hurts…” You noticed the brim of tears in her eyes, you pushed yourself up to sitting, “Case…I’m fine…” A gentle hand stroked your face, a pair of soft lips met ours. She took a shuddering breath, knowing she’d need to come clean soon or Benson would.

“I…I called your parents…” You groaned rolling your eyes, 

“Seriously?” 

“Baby this was national news, did you really expect them to not show up?” You huffed out a breath at that, “Liv sent them off they’re waiting at a hotel….”

“Thank God…” 

***

You’d been required to stay in the hospital overnight for observation, and Casey hadn’t left your side once. Her parents were more than happy to take Ella home with them once you’d reassured her that they were good guys, explaining that they were Auntie Casey’s Mom & Dad. You’d deal with the wrath of your own parents for doing so at a later time. Rita stopped by right before you were discharged saying she’d taken Mrs Lexington to arraignment on kidnapping and accessory to attempted murder, the Judge agreeing to no bail considering the family’s wealth and the fact that Brock had yet to be caught. She also said she’d take your case against Brock and would try to get him on as many charges of the assault he put you through that she could, everyone wanted this guy put away for good. (She also told you to take your time getting back to work).

When the hospital staff deemed you well enough to finally leave, Casey insisted on staying with you at home as well. You tried to fight her off but she reminded you that with Rita taking the case she had time off, and that you had a very energetic five year old to take care of, and you had a hole in your abdomen. A few days later, Brock slipped up, using his credit card at a strip club where the squad was quick to catch up with him and arrest him. At that news was the time that Casey slipped out of your apartment to meet Rita down at the squad room.

“Give me a minute with him, will you?” Rita quirked a brow at the younger woman.

“Sure. Just remember there’s a room full of cops out there.” Casey nodded, before entering the interrogation room.

“You really think you were gonna get away with it?” Brock leered over at her,

“That bitch is dead, and my daughter’s going right back to her blood family where she belongs, understood?” Casey approached the table, placing her hands wide, leaning closer into him.

“ _That bitch_ is recovering perfectly fine, and your daughter is going nowhere near your goddamn family _ever_ again. And you…you’re going away for life. We’ve got you on kidnapping, attempted murder, illegal possession of a firearm, multiple counts of assault, rape, and don’t forget breaking your parole. And we’re going to make sure all those sentences are served consecutively. Understood?” She quirked a brow, pushing off the table right before Brock could lunge towards her (thankfully he was cuffed to the table)

“Who do you even think you are?” He growled towards her, she turned from her spot near the door.

“I’m A.D.A. Casey Novak…” Brock outwardly laughed,

“My lawyer’ll get the case thrown out before you can even put together a jury, he’ll say it’s a conflict of interest for you.”

“And that’s exactly why I’m _not_ trying the case….” The door opened, “She is. Meet Rita Calhoun, your one way ticket to Attica…” Casey gave a smirk as she passed through the doorway, more than thankful that Brock was finally being put away for good.


	11. Chapter 11

Over the next few weeks both of the Lexington’s trials began, Mrs Lexington’s was much easier to comb through and she was sent off with a 2 year sentence with the jury deliberating for only a few hours. Brock’s however, was taking more time before Rita could even get it in front of a grand jury. She’d reminded you that while she definitely could prove the intent behind the attempted murder, kidnapping, and the gun charge/parole violations that it would be much harder to get the jury to believe that Brock had been raping and abusing you over the years while you were a visible couple in the media, even if you were unwilling the entire time. Casey was frustrated at that, believing that Brock was scum and deserved to pay for everything he’d done to you, you calmed her down, reminding her that she needed to think with the lawyer side of her brain. 

Agreeing with Rita, you worked together to start to put together a solid case. You would end up taking the stand as more of a character witness, recounting everything pertaining to your and Brock’s so called “relationship”, explaining how your family threatened to cut you off if you left D.C. and insisted on things being kept up for appearances. You added on how you had sole custody of Ella, and had a restraining order drawn up when you’d moved to New York but never had it processed. 

The trial was rough, and spanned over nearly a month as the defence kept pulling out all the stops, Brock’s lawyer was good, but Rita was better. Backed by your own career in the legal field, and Casey as a fresh set of eyes in the court room and Rita’s office there was no doubt in your mind. After your testimony about the years of abuse at Brock’s hands the defence subpoena’d your Mother, most likely to question her about your family’s demands to stay in D.C. She was nearly held in contempt when she refused to show, you pulled the Ella card, saying that if she ever wanted to see her granddaughter again she’d testify, and make sure not to commit perjury on the stand. After she confirmed the truth about how they’d made you stay in D.C. with Brock, the defence took the time to pull Brock on the stand.

Wow, if you’d thought Rita was good at defending criminals, she was even better at completely tearing them to shreds. Brock grew ever the more frustrated as she was questioning him, remaining completely stoic and calm herself. He’d always had a problem with strong powerful women, and this one had him backed into a corner while he was trapped in a little wooden box. She pushed the limits hard enough that he exploded into a rage, screaming about how you were some _‘stupid dyke who deserved what came to her’_

“No further questions Your Honour.” She turned with a smirk on her face, shooting you a quick wink. The jury finally left to deliberate, leaving you feeling rather anxious. You knew there were bound to be at least one Brock Lexington supporter out of the 12, you just prayed that there were more who saw the truth for what it was.

Currently, you, Rita, and Casey were sitting around a table at Forlini’s, food and drinks spread across the table while you waited for the verdict. 

“Ya know, I don’t think you get enough credit Rita.” You started, “You really tore the entire defence apart, it’s no wonder they pay you the big bucks.” She laughed at that, 

“I will say, it’s a nice change to get to fight for the good guys once in a while.” She hummed over a sip of wine, “You know…you were more than helpful on this, you do great work Y/N, and you kept your cool the entire time in the courtroom. You might want to think about finishing up that law degree.” You stopped with your fork halfway to your mouth, glancing over at Casey who simply smiled back at you.

“You can’t defer at Harvard, besides I can’t uproot Ella again.” (And you didn’t want to leave Casey….)

“So?” Rita continued, “Transfer your credits over to NYU or Fordham, they’re both respected schools.”

“I’ll….I’ll think about it…” 

“I think you should do it” Casey spoke, “It was your number one goal, right?”

“There may be a spot opening in the firm by the time you’d be done too.” You outwardly laughed at that, 

“Rita, no offence but hell will freeze over before I become a defence attorney.” She simply shrugged, talking another sip of wine as her phone pinged, she quickly read the message, 

“Jury’s back.” The three of you moved quickly, throwing down a handful of bills to cover your tab before making your way back to the courthouse.

The jury had come back guilty on all counts, you were actually shocked when the foreman of the jury stated that most of them had agreed that Brock should be charged with the assault and rape counts that you had to go through. The judge ended up throwing that out, but took it into account when sentencing Brock, which meant he’d be spending life in prison with no parole. For good measure you had Rita draw up restraining orders for both of his parents against you, Ella and Casey, just in case. Your parents were slowly starting to finally come around, realizing their mistakes in the past, apologizing for threatening your trust fund, they were proud of how quickly you’d made a name for yourself in New York. While they still weren’t totally happy about you and Casey, they were a little more welcoming to her presence in your life, especially when they realized how respected of an A.D.A. she was. You said good bye to them as the trial ended, promising to keep them in the loop with Ella in the future. At the end of the day, you were simply happy to be curled up on the couch with Casey, Ella strewn across both your laps as her attention was turned to the T.V. (at least she’d chosen The Little Mermaid this time).


	12. Chapter 12

The following weeks after the trial you kept thinking about what Rita had said, with Casey’s gentle insistence, you started to look into what hoops you’d have to jump through, you reached out to the schools she’d mentioned. It honestly probably helped that the trial had just wrapped and was still all over the news, a little sympathy vote wouldn’t hurt. In the end you ended up enrolled at NYU to start in September.

Casey usually returned to your apartment after work, spending more and more time with both you and Ella. She was well on her way through the world of Disney education, often laughing at the adorable way Ella would explain the characters, sometimes pausing the movie to double check that the woman knew exactly what was going on. (That pretty lady is actually the sea witch…) Ella was completely entranced by Casey, you often found the girl buried in her lap when you’d return into the room, or witness her dragging the woman down the hall to her room, in dire need of performing a fashion show of all her princess dresses. If anyone at work ever brought up how soft she was around the girl, she’d deny it, but she secretly loved every second of it.

You found yourself circling past her office to drop off extra coffee whenever you were dropping off warrants or paperwork for Rita, occasionally having to swing through SVU if Rita needed something while she was there. It was a serious wonder how you and Casey hadn’t run into each other earlier in your time in New York, the squad definitely loved poking fun at the fact that Casey was dating someone working for the defence, you joked back saying you weren’t dealing with criminals, just processing their paperwork. You became comfortable with them, often joining Casey on evenings out after successful trials, it was a blessing to be surrounded by supportive people who worked in the same industry, you’d gotten pretty sick of the Mom’s groups from Ella’s school.

The three of you spent Thanksgiving and Christmas with the Novak’s, who Ella had slowly warmed up to. They had welcomed you back with open, loving arms, overly enthusiastic that you and Casey were back together. They were supportive of you finishing up your degree, were more than willing to help you out childcare wise when you were stuck in classes or needed some actual quiet time to study. You were incredibly thankful for having such a caring and open family to turn to when you needed it. 

**

You’d spent the evening at the library at NYU going over a term paper, using the extra quiet time to cram in as much studying as you could. When you got back to the apartment, you noticed the photo book of Casey and you siting open on the coffee table. You smiled thinking of the memories, and the fact that Ella had probably forced her into looking through it, asking about stories from her point of view. Casey was in the kitchen, pouring out a second glass of wine as she greeted you with a bright smile as Ella came bounding back into the room dressed in her pj’s. 

“All done!” She turned her head up to Casey, giving a rather toothy grin, teeth closed against each other.

“You sure you got them all?” She nodded furiously to her before jumping into your arms, giving you a tight squeeze, you picked her up, kissing her cheek as you moved over to Casey, kissing her softly.

“You all ready for bed Ella?” You asked as she yawned, burying her head into your shoulder.

“Mmhmm…Will you tuck me in?” You kissed her head gently, 

“Of course baby.” You nodded your head to Casey to indicate she should follow, you both knew how Ella could get and you didn’t want a flair up right at bedtime. She lingered in the doorway as you flicked on the night light, placing Ella down under the covers, making sure she had all the right stuffed animals surrounding her. You gave her a kiss on the forehead, smoothing her hair gently. “Momma loves you very much, sweet dreams princess.” 

“G’night Momma.” She murmured, curling into a stuffed bear. You gave her cheek a stroke before standing, moving to the doorway, you were almost out when she added on, “G’night Momma Casey.” Casey felt her heart literally shatter, this time in absolute love instead of heartbreak. It was as if this was what her heart needed to fully bloom, knowing that she was exactly where she needed to be, there was no doubt this was the path life wanted her to take. She looked up at you, you took the tears brimming in her eyes as confirmation that this was the first time Ella had ever called her that.

“Goodnight Ella.” She managed out, keeping her voice steady before you gently shut the door. The two of you stood frozen in the hallway for a moment, the surprise slowly sinking in. You hadn’t prompted it in any way, Ella had continued calling her ‘Auntie Casey’ or simply ‘Casey’, but she was more than well aware that you loved each other, you had no issues showing affection in front of her, she was clearly figuring things out faster than you’d thought. “I…” Casey sputtered, dumbfounded at the new term of endearment, you simply smiled, pulling her into a kiss, murmuring against her lips.

“I love you.”

***

April rolled around before you even knew it, you hosted Ella’s 6th birthday at the Novak’s house to have more space, numerous kids from school screeching their way through the back yard. Both the SVU squad and Rita made appearances, and you were finally able to introduce Casey to the other parents. You’d been a little nervous, but no one had promptly picked their kid up and left due to you dating a woman so you were satisfied. Casey had suggested the idea of a princess party company, since Ella was so entirely obsessed, and Elsa and Anna were clearly the hits of the party. The idea had never crossed your mind, you were incredibly thankful that Casey was so thoughtful when it came to Ella, you knew she’d been hesitant towards children originally, but there was clearly no distaste when it came to your daughter. Ella had entirely too much fun, and eaten entirely too much cake, passing out in a sugar comma on the way home.

A few weeks later was when you got your turn of celebration as graduation rolled around, and you were crossing the stage a recipient of an actual law degree. You’d been shocked when your parents had showed up, even more shocked when they were actually more than pleasant with the Novak’s. After picking up Ella from school, the 7 of you had made your way out to a celebratory dinner, your parents not even cringing at the affection shown between Casey and you. They realized just how comfortable Ella was around her and how much love was flowing between the three of you, it was constant smiles all around, the complete opposite of your life in D.C. You were even more shocked after they insisted on paying for dinner that your Mother pulled you aside to say she was proud of you, and glad to see you living the life you were, this was the happiest she’d seen you in years. 

***

A few weeks after graduating you’d taken the bar, it was, hands down one of the most stressful parts of your life and you were beyond grateful having both Casey and Rita helping you prep for it. Today however, you’d been working through some paperwork when Rita shot you a text, asking you to bring a few files over to SVU which you happily obliged to. You made your way into the 16th precinct easily, having been there enough times, glancing around the bull pen quickly, Olivia noticed you, directing you over to interrogation 3. She knocked on the glass, the lawyers inside flipping their books closed, leaving the perp with Fin.

“You needed these?” You held the files out to your boss, 

“Thanks,” Rita turned back to the door, “Hey…take the rest of the day off.”

“You sure?”

“Absolutely.” She gave you a smile, “I’ll take a minute with my client…” She disappeared into interrogation again. Casey sighed, directed toward Olivia, 

“I sure hope you have something more than circumstantial this time.” Olivia took the comment with a grain of salt, moving back to the squad room as Casey turned to you, “The rest of the day off while she’s starting a new case, bold…” You smiled at your girlfriend, 

“Might have something to do with the fact that we have something to celebrate tonight…” Casey’s face shot up,

“Did I forget something?” Her face etched with concern, you gave a laugh at that.

“No…I passed the bar…” Her face lit up at that, a huge smile on her face, 

“Oh my God! Y/N!” Casey pulled you into a tight hug only pulling away long enough to lay a soft kiss against your lips, “Baby I’m so fucking proud of you…I knew you could do it.” You giggled lightly, wanting to pepper her entire face with kisses but knowing that was completely unprofessional you settled for a quick one against her lips, pulling away.

“Thank you baby.” 

Casey’s parents ended up taking Ella for a sleepover that night, giving you plenty of time to celebrate together. She took you out for an incredible and romantic dinner and had bottles of champagne ready at your apartment. You couldn’t even count the amount of times she repeated how much she loved you, was proud of you and knew you could do it. The night was spent entranced in each other’s bodies as you showed each other just how much you cared about and loved each other. You were incredibly ecstatic to finally be on the path that life truly wanted you to live, happy, loved and living what had always been your dream.


	13. Chapter 13

You’d been incredibly lucky over the next few months after passing the bar exam as an opening came up in the D.A.’s office, thanks to recommendations from Rita and the other lawyers at her firm, you came with outstanding references and were more than happy to soon accept the position. You ended up working mainly homicide cases but it wasn’t rare for SVU to call you in when they were overloaded with cases, they’d rather have someone they were familiar with than a random A.D.A. Despite the workload between you and Casey, you still managed to spend enough time together and with Ella, opting to attempt to work from home more often than not. 

In tradition, you both booked off the last week of August to spend in the Hamptons with her parents. You might not be able to spend the entire summer there, but you really wanted to be able to share the experience with Ella (though thanks to no school she ended up spending the entire month there with the Novak’s, who she’d affectionately started calling Mr Grampa and Mrs Gramma much to everyone’s amusement). You and Casey had both been working rather gruelling cases for SVU. You’d been in a bit of a funk taking on one involving a domestic violence victim who’d been raped and abused for years in her marriage, you even debated recusing yourself considering how close to home it it, but Casey reassured you there was no better lawyer out there to take it. You truly knew what the victim went through, and you knew exactly what kind of argument would make the perp crack on the stand. The jury came back with a guilty verdict in less than 10 minutes and Fin joked that Casey better watch her back. Instead of countering back she simply smirked over at you, stating that there was no one better than you.

Finally, that last week of summer rolled around and you arrived at the Novak’s Hampton’s house, Ella launching into your arms (despite having directly come from the beach, soaking and covered in sand) before jumping on Casey, babbling on about how much fun she’d have over the last few weeks. You both simply laughed it off, summer was the time for too much sugar, right?

The next morning you, Ella and Casey headed down to the beach, giving her parents some probably much needed child free time. You spent some time splashing in the ocean, watching Ella practice a countless amount of handstands before you retreated back up to the warm sand. Ella busied herself building sandcastles with a neighbouring pair of siblings while the two of you simply relaxed, enjoying not having to deal with the law for once. Casey’s phone pinged, bringing you both out of your daydreams.

“You’re not getting work calls already, are you?” You questioned as she picked up her phone, a wicked grin on her face.

“No…”She replied, taking a breath, “I put an offer in on a Brownstone a few blocks away from the school last week…” Your jaw dropped, 

“Casey…” She smirked, turning the phone screen towards you, 

“Deal just went through…it’s ours…”

“Shut the _fuck_ up….” Your felt tears spring into your eyes, a complete sense of awe as you looked over at her, “Baby…” She handed you her phone with the listing pulled up, and it was absolutely perfect. Close to Ella’s school, but still close enough to the D.A.’s office, absolutely stunning, 4 bedrooms, a sun filled living room with a large bay window, fully renovated, you were completely in love from just the pictures. You looked up at Casey, she smiled back at you, knowing just how much you’d love it.

“It’s New York real estate, you’ve gotta act fast.” You rolled your eyes at her, pulling her into a kiss, everything really was coming together.

***  
The week passed faster than you’d hoped, the Novak’s more than happy to hear about the housing move, Ella was simply excited to have an upstairs in her house, and ecstatic to permanently have Casey living in the same place. It was your final night in the Hampton’s, having spent the afternoon at the usual end of summer BBQ party, after the sun set you were settled lounging beside Casey, Ella in your lap, laughing with each other as you waited for the display. You linked your free hand with Casey’s as the fireworks began, it was only a few moments before you hear Ella loudly whisper to you, 

“Momma you were right…her eyes do sparkle at the fireworks.” Casey obviously heard, looking towards you, tears in both of your eyes, shocked at the words that came out of your six year old. You sat, frozen in the moment before Ella nudged your ribs, looking up at you expectantly. You smiled down at her, kissing her forehead,

“Didn’t you have something to give Momma Casey?” You asked. Ella gleefully jumped off your lap, moving to dig through your beach bag, pulling a small box out of it before walking back over to Casey.

“Momma’s had this for a very long time, but she wants you to have it now, you know how much she loves you right?” Casey let out a very soft sob as Ella held out the engagement ring in front of her, looking between the two of you, tears and love filled your eyes. She honestly had no idea this was coming, Ella plopped down in her lap, still holding the box, “Momma and I love you lots, we like when you’re around Momma Casey…” Casey couldn’t hold back the tears then, wrapping an arm around Ella, kissing her forehead before reaching for you, pulling you into a tight kiss.

“Of course baby…how could I say no?” You kissed again, “Besides….” She turned away from the two of you, ruffling through her own bag, “Did you think I ever though differently?” You gasped at the ring she produced, both of you laughing at the irony of the situation. The night ended in a million happy tears, rings on both your fingers, and absolute joy coursing between you. (and Ella’s insistence that she get to pick out a fancy ring too).

****

After about a day of deliberation both you and Casey had decided on a wedding in the Hamptons the following year, you hated having to wait that long but it held such a special part of your hearts that it only made sense. You’d made a quick email to your parents, not thinking they’d think much of it. Everyone at SVU and the D.A.’s office were quick to congratulate you, but not surprised in the least.

A year moved quicker than you could imagine, and sunset on the Hampton’s beach quickly solidified as your most favourite thing as your father walked you down the aisle (turned out he was actually proud this time) the lace dress complimenting you completely. Casey’s eyes shone with tears as you spoke your vows to each other, vowing that you would love each other until the end of time, and that you truly belonged together. She kissed you so passionately you thought your parents might combust but you didn’t care, you were finally living the life you dreamed, with the absolute love of your life. Ella was quick to jump up at the two of you once you broke apart, you pulled her up to your hip as both of you kissed cheeks. The night was spent among friends and family, full of love, acceptance, and the Novak’s were not about to let it end without an incredible firework display. Casey had her arms wrapped around you, your around Ella as you watched the magic happen in the night sky, happy tears rolling down your face as you felt Casey nuzzle against your neck. You turned your head to meet her lips. You’d imagined this moment for years, truth be told you’d never expected it to happen like this, but you were so in love with everything that it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that you were married to the love of your life, you’d moved into that beautiful Brownstone, and your daughter was the most incredible thing you could imagine. You’d loved Casey Novak the moment she’d walked into your life, and she was finally your wife (and very quick to be the adoptive mother of your daughter) and there was nothing you’d rather want. You settled into your life on the Upper West Side, in the Brownstone you’d dreamed of, with the most gorgeous wife and most adorable daughter you didn’t know you needed.


End file.
